The Medic Nin
by ANBUTaichou
Summary: The fourth ninja war is done and in the past. Sakura is an accomplished medic, too busy with the mundane life at the hospital to have a life of her own. When an opportunity presents itself for a change, she takes it without thinking twice, but this isn't the only change to come. KakaSaku. Slow Burn. M for a reason. Other Saku pairings may pop up.
1. Chapter 1

Sakura let out a long sigh and leaned her elbows on to the desk, hands covering her eyes. She loved working at the hospital, but sometimes she swore this paperwork would be the death of her. Peeking one eye from under her palm, she looked at the clock on the wall.

8:23 PM. It was a Friday night and she was in the office completing chart notes and requisition orders for medical supplies. She hadn't even gotten to her research yet today.

Once the Fourth Great Ninja War was over there had been a lot to do. She was still Tsunade's apprentice, after all. In the years since the war numerous caches of scrolls had been found throughout every country, and some were still being found today. After the war the Ninja Alliance held in friendliness, but each country had separated to it's own devices again for the most part.

That said, Tsunade and Sakura were widely regarded as the best medic nins of the time and were trusted to be some of the only ninja capable and trustworthy enough to go through the libraries of medical scrolls. It was a long and arduous process, but Sakura had been tasked by Tsunade with reviewing each scroll that was sent to Konoha as the libraries and hideouts of the Akatsuki and Orochimaru were discovered.

While Tsunade had officially "retired" from her role as Hokage, she had taken over the running of the ever-expanding Leaf Hospital, which she complained came with even more paperwork than the office of Hokage. Shizune was still apprentice and aide to Tsunade as well, and she and Sakura did their best to keep their shishou on track with paperwork, helping when they could between their already packed schedules as the top medics in the hospital. Which was why Sakura had found herself working on the supply requisitions.

Truth be told, Sakura had surpassed her shishou in medical ninjutsu, which still made her blush whenever Tsunade got to boasting about her surrogate daughter, but she was more than happy to continue working under Tsunade. With Tsunade running things and Shizune always nearby, it meant Sakura was able to still go on missions from time to time, work on her research (both her own and the scrolls sent in), and to have a bit of a personal life.

 _Not much of a personal life, lately..._ she thought with a groan.

Thinking back, the pinkette realized she hadn't been on a date in weeks. After the war she and Sasuke had tried dating but while Sakura still loved him dearly, too many things had happened and she found herself unable to entrust her heart to him. She trusted him - and Naruto of course - with her life, and was always happy to go out as a member of Team Seven on missions, but after about six months she had sat Sasuke down and after a couple hours' conversation, they had mutually agreed that their relationship was no longer meant to be in that way.

Following Sasuke, she had gone out with several other ninjas over the years, but only one had been what she would call 'serious'. While on a two-month mission to Suna to lend her medical expertise to the Kazekage, she and Gaara had grown fond of one another during all their long nights working.

It had been about three weeks after she arrived when she and Gaara had been pouring over the plans for the new hospital. Sakura was adamantly urging Gaara to expand the medicinal greenhouse and debating that excess plants could be a source of supplemental funding for the hospital, when she had looked up to see him staring at her, brows furrowed.

Thinking she had upset the stoic kazekage with her rather forceful insistence, she had started to backpedal, when he had quietly interrupted her and asked if she would like to get dinner with him the next day. She was so relieved he wasn't upset with her that she had blurted out a "that would be nice" in response and didn't realize he had been asking her on a date until his cheeks glowed red and he stammered slightly, saying he would pick her up from her hotel at 7 the next night then.

The date had gone quite well despite her lack of initial awareness that it was a date. The night had passed quicker than she would have wished and Sakura had found herself looking for more time with him outside of her duties as a medical ambassador. The following weeks had gone so well between the two of them that at the end of her time there he had asked her to stay on as a long-term ambassador to train new medical ninja for the village. Sakura had considered, but in the end couldn't bring herself to stay away from Konoha any longer.

She and Gaara continued to see one another for several weeks after she returned to Konoha, each of them visiting from time to time as their duties allowed, but mostly writing letters to one another. Naruto had been shocked initially when he had found out the two of them were seeing one another, but were happy that they were happy.

In the end, however, Naruto had told her he knew it wouldn't work out between them when she mentioned she and Gaara had decided to return to being friends. After narrowly escaping a chakra-infused smack to the back of his head, he hurriedly explained that he had only known because obviously Gaara was the Kazekage and couldn't leave his village, and he knew Sakura would never leave Konoha, her friends, and her family. Sometimes she still regretted not taking the chance on her relationship with Gaara for the longer term, but she was still truly happy with her life now.

Since then she had a date here and there with mostly ninja from Konoha, but none had worked out for more than a date or two with the same person. She was a strong kunoichi with demanding jobs at the hospital as well as as her missions. She had gone on one date with a civilian, but it became quickly apparent that he didn't understand the life and duties of a kunoichi.

Glancing at the clock, Sakura jumped to see it was now 8:47. She had been daydreaming for almost a half hour! Deciding that this obviously meant she wasn't going to get any more work done tonight, she decided to pack up her things and head home.

No sooner had she stored her research scrolls in her bag then the door had burst open to reveal a long-haired blonde in her medic uniform and a large bag over her shoulder.

"Forehead!" Ino yelled triumphantly, "I knew you would still be here!"

"Hey, Pig. I'm just getting ready to go home for - "

"No you're not!" Ino interrupted "You're getting ready to go out! You're 20, not 50!" Ino swung the large bag onto Sakura's desk and opened it to show a menagerie of dresses and shoes, makeup, and hair tools. "It's been too long and we're going out. Tomorrow is your day off, right?"

"Yeah...," Sakura said hesitantly, knowing what was likely coming next. Ino grinned at her, knowing her friend would fuss for a few minutes, but would give in easily enough.

Thirty minutes later found the two women walking out through the doors of the hospital. Ino had brought what most people would assume was half her closet, but Sakura knew it was barely a fraction of it. Being slightly smaller chested than Ino, Sakura didn't quite fill out the dress she had chosen as well as her blonde friend, but seeing as Ino usually wore things that were on the tighter side, she still thought she filled it out well.

Sakura had chosen a deep burgundy dress with wide straps over the shoulders but (being Ino's dress, after all) a rather plunging neckline that prevented her from wearing the standard kunoichi breast bindings that she normally wore with her medic's uniform. She was glad she had filled out just a bit more in that department, and didn't mind showing just a little skin. Ino was right...she was 20 years old; she didn't need to dress like an old maid when they were having a night on the town.

Thank goodness most of Ino's shoes were practical as well as cute. Being a ninja, you had to be able to respond and move quickly if the need arose, and Ino had learned after one particularly eventful night when she had to prove to some drunks that she meant it when she said no. Her heel had snapped off in the tussle and she had twisted her ankle. While Ino was fine and had effectively explained to the drunk men what her 'no' had meant - by way of leaving them in a heap in the alley to wake up in the morning - ever since then she had decided to invest in custom shoes she designed and commissioned from one of the ninja tool suppliers. Some of them even had small compartments in the heels for storage.

Strolling down the streets of Konoha, Ino and Sakura made their way to one of the more swanky ninja bars (well, as swanky as a ninja bar could get). Ultimately what it came down to was drinks that weren't watered down, relatively clean floors, and reasonably good lighting. It was easier to be relaxed in a ninja bar when everyone could see well enough to know that the only danger was when Genma stopped paying attention to the fact that he was leaning too close to people with his senbon still in his mouth.

Sakura took a deep breath and followed her friend inside, trying not to blush too much as heads turned toward her and Ino.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura took a deep breath and followed her friend inside, trying not to blush too much as heads turned toward her and Ino.

Ino instantly added a slight sway to her hips, showing off her deep purple dress that clung to her curves. From the front it looked like a simple, albiet tight, sleeveless dress with a wide boatneck that loosened and sat just below her the dips of her collarbones. Once she passed, however, her seemingly cute but conservative dress proved to have a very largely open back that showed off her the trim and tight muscles nearly down to her hips.

There were no cat-calls or whistles and conversations continued normally, but when shinobi heads actually turned to admire the two young women walking into the bar it was nearly as blatant of a statement. Had they come in wearing their ninja uniforms they would have been noticed (you couldn't remain unnoticed in a room full of shinobi) but only small flicks of the eye would have been a tell, if any was shown at all.

Ino and Sakura made their way through to the end of the bar where several hi-tops had a gathering of their comrades already there. Apparently Ino had already recruited TenTen and Hinata, who were chatting with a couple of the other kunoichi who had gone through the academy a couple years before them. All were smiling at their friends, pleased to see Ino had succeeded in her mission to get Sakura out.

"Sakura! You made it!" TenTen shouted, probably a little louder than was strictly necessary. Apparently this wasn't her first round.

"Hi guys! Gomen-ne, I had a bit of a late work day," replied Sakura with a shy grin.

"It's okay!" Hinata said somewhat loudly for her as well, as TenTen ran off to the bar. No sooner had they all finished greeting one another, TenTen bounded back to their small table with a bottle of sochu and 4 small glasses, pouring them each a share while explaining this was on her, having just split a nice bounty with Lee and Neji for a criminal they just happened to stumble and subdue upon on their latest mission.

"Ikki!" the girls all chorused together, earning some small grins from those surrounding them.

Having toasted to Team Guy's recent success, they continued and toasted to a successful girls' night, Ino shouting "about damn time!" before downing her cup.

"By the way! Sakura!" TenTen half-whispered, "you look amazing in that dress!" She cast a meaningful glance to Sakura's chest. Going halfway down to her navel, the neckline of Sakura's dress showed the gentle curve of each breast. Being similarly endowed to Sakura, the two had often expressed their jealousy of Ino and Hinata. "Where did you get that?"

Sakura blushed slightly and grinned at Ino as the blonde told TenTen where she had gotten it.

The blonde's grin wasn't only due to the complement paid to her friend or the borrowed dress. Ino noticed several ninja casting appreciative looks toward Sakura at TenTen's remarks. Her master plan was off to a good start!

—

She does look great, he thought to himself taking a quick sip from his beer off in a corner booth. He gave himself a mental shake and forced his eyes away from the suggestive view of Sakura's dress and back to his overly enthusiastic green-clad friend.

Guy was busy gushing of his pride in his team over their recent capture of an A-class criminal while on what was supposed to be a simple B rank escort mission of a party of dignitaries. Tears were streaming down his face as he practically shouted about the power of youth from across the table at Kakashi.

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask at his friend, interjecting, "should we still call them our teams, though? Neji and TenTen are jounin with their own teams of genin, and Lee will likely be passing this year into the jounin rank."

"Right you are, Hokage-sama!" he said, sniffling and stifling his joyous tears.

"Please stop that. It's Kakashi. There is no need for that here," said ninja corrected gently.

He sighed quietly as Guy continued to gush, now ranting about the honor it was to have his good friend the Rokudaime as his eternal rival. Taking another quick sip from his beer, Kakashi's eyes wandered back to the group of kunoichi. As Guy started recounting the complete history of their rivalry (as he often did after a couple drinks), Kakashi found himself focusing on the waist length pink hair flowing down the graceful curve of a back as she leaned forward to whisper with Hinata.

—

Hinata was blushing furiously while confiding to Sakura that she had been spending the nights at Naruto's apartment the last week while he's been away on a mission. Sakura was happy for her friends. They were getting quite serious now, and Hinata was practically beside herself whenever Naruto's missions went over a week's length.

As the night progressed more rounds were bought. The women had initially intended on going to another bar a couple streets down, but that plan got canceled when Genma, Raido, and two Hyuga's approached the table and bought a couple rounds for the four kunoichi.

Genma was a flirt at all times, but generally was simply friendly with Sakura. However he had recently been in a small skirmish while on a mission that had resulted in a dislocated jaw and some broken ribs. Having seen to his wounds just over a week ago, Sakura found herself the recipient of several drinks and numerous compliments from the shinobi who was several years her senior.

While the two Hyuga's chatted up TenTen and Ino, Genma and Raido were chatting with Hinata and Sakura. It wasn't quite what Ino had planned. She was trying to play matchmaker for Sakura and Tokuma Hyuga, but didn't mind that the two Hyuga's had approached her and TenTen for now. After all, Sakura and Hinata had been chatting and it made sense that the two Hyuga's would rather approach the pair that didn't include the eldest daughter of the main branch in this particular context. Ko had actually watched over Hinata when she was younger. But no, this worked out just fine. Raido was an amiable guy and was chatting with Hinata happily about Naruto.

Slightly after 1 AM a high pitched squeak rang through the bar as an unexpected Naruto entered and swept Hinata up in an ardent hug and cutting her off with a quick kiss. After explaining how the mission he and 'Teme' had been trying one another's patience over the last ten days, both ninja had booked it back to village as quickly as they could. They had even decided to skip a ferry that would have required them to wait for almost a full day, and to simply run over the water for the six hour trip in order to get home.

After making a quick round of hello's to his friends, Naruto was firmly ushered out by a grinning and slightly pink Hinata telling him he'd been traveling for over 30 hours with little rest and he needed to go to bed. Naruto didn't seem to mind in the least. He quickly took off his traveling cloak and fastened it around Hinata's shoulders, explaining it had started to rain slightly and he didn't want her to catch a chill. Going redder, Hinata was only happy to receive it and be guided by the hand out into the night by her orange-clad hero. Sakura smiled, happy as her two friends bustled away to be with one another after Naruto's absence.

Twenty minutes passed and Sakura noticed the rain seemed to no longer be drizzling outside. Finishing what must have been the sixth, no, seventh drink of the night, Sakura stood up from her stool and realized it was probably a good thing that Ino had insisted Sakura wear her custom ninja heels instead of a spare set of regular heels Sakura had tucked in a drawer in her office. She wobbled ever so slightly and blushed as Genma grabbed her by the waist to steady her. Sakura grinned sheepishly up at Genma and went on her tiptoes to give him a very quick peck on the cheek, thanking him for his company and for treating her.

Seeing Sakura get up, Ino immediately started to protest that the night was still young, anticipating Sakura's desire to go home and curl up in bed after a long day. Her not-so-subtle glares from Sakura to Genma told Sakura exactly what Ino had intended this evening and she grinned at her friend. Excusing herself to 'go to the ladies' room,' Sakura started toward the back of the bar, where she slipped out the door typically used by staff. Sakura appreciated Ino's efforts at playing matchmaker. Tonight just wasn't going to be that kind of night. She was truly at the end of her energy for the night, and with the number of drinks she had consumed didn't want to give Genma the wrong impression. She would have to see him in future most likely anyway at the hospital, and she wanted to make sure to avoid unnecessary awkwardness that might result from her current intoxication.

Realizing that she might be a little worse off than she thought, she stumbled toward the end of the alley from the back door of the bar. Catching herself on the wall, she steadied herself and tried to shake her head clear. This might be a rough walk home. All the better that she wasn't making a fool of herself with one of Ino's setups tonight.

—

Picking his hokage hat up from the bench, Kakashi bid his rival a good night. He had noticed Sakura excuse herself to the ladies' room and the slight dread that was clenching his stomach as she stumbled toward the restrooms told him how many drinks she had probably had. Did she even have dinner? Probably not, knowing how hard she worked.

He didn't want to be there if she left with one of the shinobi crowded around her table. Genma was nice enough. In fact he was a couple years older than Kakashi was himself, but Kakashi knew Genma wasn't really the type to settle down. Raido and Ko had been there too, and they didn't strike him as the pinkette's type. Tokuma had obviously been interested in Sakura as well, but had stuck by Ko who had seemed most interested in TenTen. And that was just those that had been actively talking to the kunoichi! Kakashi had noticed a number of other shinobi eyeing the group from further back, specifically the Cherry Blossom.

Nope. He really didn't like the idea of watching her be escorted home or who knows where by one of these guys. Slipping through the still-crowded bar, Kakashi passed the group he had been distracted by most of the night and out the front door. He breathed a sigh of relief at the fresh air and quiet of the streets outside.

—

Inside, Kakashi's overly enthusiastic companion smiled thoughtfully to himself as he sipped at the last of his sake. He had noticed his rival's distraction whilst reminiscing over the history of their competitions and the score. Closing his eyes, he felt the reverberation of a larger door on the other side of the wall down the restroom corridor. Guy smiled and sipped again, taking his time before he would make his own leave.

—

Taking a deep breath and gathering herself, Sakura stepped out from the alley and onto the street. Turning away from the bar, she headed back up the street toward the glowing Hokage tower.

 _I should have refused that last round_ , she thought as she glared at the ground for anything trying to pop up and trip her. Her glare didn't prevent that rock from not moving and thus catching her shoe, though, and she stumbled forward trying to catch herself.

"Woopsie," whispered a deep voice she knew well.

She wasn't moving any more and there was a gentle arm around her midriff and a sure hand that had caught one of hers as she stumbled.

"Ka - KaKashi-kun!" Emerald eyes turned toward his voice, laying her hand over his on her waist. She smelled faintly of alcohol but in catching her he also caught a whiff of her vanilla shampoo as her hair fell forward around her face.

A butterfly fluttered in his stomach at that. She never called him Kakashi-kun. He had barely been able to get her to stop calling him sensei in the last year. He liked it.

"Having a little fun tonight? Where's your escort?"

Her brows knit together. "Es-kort? What are you talking about Kakashi-kuuun?" She had definitely had a few drinks.

"No one is walking you home?" he asked, brushing her hair back from her face as they stood.

Her brows stayed together as he had taken his hand from her waist, but shot up in surprise as his fingers grazed her cheek instead. Sakura's face lit up in an inebriated fashion and she smiled up at him, swaying just a smidge. "Nope! I'm sneaking out!" she whispered into his ear.

He felt the hair on his head rise, sending a tingle down his spine.

"Well we can't have that now can we? I'll have to make sure you get home okay. What kind of hokage would I be if I left my favorite medic alone at this hour to wander home?"

"I-I'm a kunoICHI! I…can get home just fine!" she said emphatically, taking a few clumsy steps down the street.

Kakashi smiled slightly and shook his head, taking two quick steps to catch up to her. She wasn't exactly moving quickly.

"I never said you couldn't little Blossom," he looped her arm through his under the guise of chivalry. "But I certainly think it would only be honorable of me to escort you there." He started to turn a corner toward her apartment and she stopped. He thought she was going to object further, but she gripped his arm with other other hand as well.

"But I live this way?"

"You do?"

"Yes. In the new complexes by the hospital!" she beamed.

"When did you move in there? I didn't know they were done yet."

"I got the first one! Tsunade-sama helped me so I could be closer to the hospital. My old apartment was too far. Yep. Too far." She started walking toward the hokage tower and hospital again.

Smiling, Kakashi realized that would put him only a few blocks from his own house. He had purchased his home for a similar reason; to be nearer to the tower. For someone who was known for being habitually late, it certainly helped to be only a couple minutes from his office. He had purchased his home in a nice quiet section of the Hot Springs district. His backyard ended with the bottom of the cliff face that further down held the hokage faces. Sakura's new apartment would be just on the edge of the district, a bit south of him.

The pair walked along, Sakura telling him about all the space she had in her new apartment. Every now and then she would stumble slightly and her grip would tighten on his arm. A blush would sweep over her cheeks each time as he watched her from the corner of his eye around the drape of the hokage hat.

Fifteen minutes later they came to a stop on the sidewalk in front of Sakura's apartment. It was a small complex with private entrances for each home, two at a each eave. Her particular apartment was in the north-west corner of the complex and appeared to be two levels. Glancing toward his own home, Kakashi thought he may just be able to see the building from his kitchen window.

His face reddened at the thought. What am I thinking? Don't be a creep, Kakashi.

As he was recovering from his silent embarrassment, the downpour started. It was as if the clouds had been slashed. Moving quickly Kakashi grabbed Sakura by the waist and dashed under the eave in front of her door. Setting her back down gently he saw her brows furrow and her cheeks flush.

"Thanks!" she glanced at the waves of water coming down just inches away from them.

"It's a good thing we got here when we did by the looks of it." It was then he noticed that she wasn't carrying a purse and this dress certainly didn't have any pockets. "Uh…Sakura," her eyes flitted back to him at this. "Where's your key?"

"Oh!" She quickly lifted her foot, pivoting from the knee to grab at her shoe. She realized that perhaps she was a little more drunk than she had thought as she lost her balance and fell. Sakura closed her eyes, ready for the impact. It was softer than she expected. Then she realized Kakashi had caught her her again, one hand at the back of her neck and one around her waist.

She opened her eyes and looked up into Kakashi's face. It was inches from hers. The drape of his hokage hat had fallen around her face as he bent over her, holding her up. Their faces were shaded as they gazed at one another, neither moving. She felt her face getting warm. Knowing she was blushing made her blush even harder as she stared up at him.

"…my shoe…"

Kakashi chuckled and scooped her up, breaking away from their precarious position with regret. "I don't think it's the shoe's fault, Sakura-chan," he said huskily.

She blushed and pulled her foot toward her, not noticing the front of her dress revealing quite a bit more than it had all night as she scrunched up to grab her heel.

Kakashi's face flared as he tried not to look directly down. "Sakura, what are you -" he stopped as a small compartment in the heel of her shoe opened and she pulled out a key. Neither made eye contact, afraid to have the other see their blush. "...I see. How clever."

He cleared his throat but didn't put her down. Instead he stepped to the side where she could unlock the door from his arms.

Hesitating ever so slightly, she obligingly unlocked the deadbolt and turned the knob as he took a step forward. Stepping inside he saw piles of boxes. She must have just moved in. Setting her down gently on top of one he straightened and looked for a light switch before shutting the door behind them. Thunder rumbled as he looked around the room. It was small but airy with numerous windows throughout the main floor. From what he could see there was a small sitting room, dining room, and kitchen on this level. Grabbing a towel that had been discarded on a nearby box, he moved to a window that had been left open slightly. He closed it and wiped up the small puddle on the sill that had formed.

Having undone the straps of the heels and taken them off, Sakura stood up to see Kakashi latching her window. She had forgotten she had left it open to try to air out the new paint smell.

"Thank you, Kakashi. I'm sorry for the mess. I haven't had a chance to unpack yet." She waved around at the boxes. This was her to-do list for tomorrow. She groaned thinking about it. He was beside her in a flash, concern in his eyes.

"Are you alright?" he tucked the hair behind her ear again. She noticed his hand was on her waist again, probably afraid she was going to fall again.

"Fine…" she she breathed, looking up at him once more. Having removed her shoes her eyes were now about level his mask-covered lips.

"We should get you to bed," he said after a moment, smiling at her blush.

"Mhmm" was her only response as she stared into his eyes. It still startled her sometimes to not see the sharingan there, but his eyes were so warm and soft as they looked at her, she couldn't help but think this was an improvement. Lost in the gaze that was captivating even without the kekkei genkai, she didn't hear him at first as he asked where her room was.

"Oh…upstairs," she blushed and looked down. Feeling his hand on the small of her back, she heard him say, "alright then, let's get you up there."

He turned her toward the stairs that ran along the wall shared with the next apartment. When she paused on the landing a few steps up, her hand on the wall to steady herself, he chuckled behind her. Scooping her up once more, he brought her up the stairs a smirk under the cloth mask.

I'm going to hell, he thought as she squeaked in surprise. His skin burned as he felt her put her arms around his neck and he noticed the the smooth skin under his hand at her legs. It wasn't his fault her dress had scooted up as he lifted her.

Making it up the stairs, he came to a small landing. Immediately in front of him was a small sitting area with just enough room for a chair, a small table with a lamp, and a small bookshelf that was still bare of books. to the right were two doors on opposite sides of the hall. On the right side was a rather spacious looking bathroom, to the left the door to the bedroom was open to reveal quite a spacious area, but less space than he had expected based on the first floor.

After a moment, the flashes of lightning showed that that half of the upstairs beyond her bedroom was actually an outdoor patio, partially covered by a canvas for protection from rain and sun. He could see a few pieces of furniture out there too. He set her down in the hall and flipped on the bathroom light so she could wash her face and brush her teeth.

Murmuring her thanks, she saw him turn to go back down the stairs. She felt the disappointment rush up in her as she thought he was leaving, but then heard the deadbolt click and his footsteps head toward the kitchen. Her stomach flipped and she immediately began to brush her teeth while she thought about what he was doing. What was he doing? Surely he didn't intend to stay with her? Hearing the water running in the kitchen below she looked at herself quizzically in the mirror over the sink. Seriously. What was he up to?

A few moments later as she finished brushing her teeth, she looked up to see him holding a glass of water for her.

"I think you're going to need this."

Nodding, she took the glass and gulped it down, then refilled it from the bathroom sink.

"Your place is very nice. Very brown box chic," he teased, crinkling his eye in a smile.

"Thank you…," she hesitated before asking, "Kakashi? Did you lock the door downstairs?" Seeing him nod, she quietly added, "Why?" with a furious blush as she looked down.

After a moment Kakashi's chuckle made her look back to him from the spot she had been staring at on the floor.

"I don't trust you going down and back up the stairs tonight." His voice was kind and soft. "You can lock the door up here behind me. I'll leave from the patio if that's alright with you."

Again, Sakura felt disappointment hit and slip onto her face before she corrected it. Smiling now, she slipped past him in the hallway and into her room. Once she had turned on the light, he saw more and more boxes piled up here. It seems all she had done was set up her bed and stock her bathroom with necessities so far. Walking in behind her he made his way toward the windows where he drew the curtains for her. She had double doors out onto the patio with curtains on them as well. They had probably come pre-installed since practically the entire wall was made up of windows.

Butterflies flapped inside her again as her mind imagined what might happen if she asked him to stay. Looking around as she just stood there, Kakashi asked if she needed him to help her find anything to sleep in.

"I don't need anything," she blushed. "I'll be fine for one night."

It was his turn to blush when he realized what she had implied. He had already seen that she was wearing at least one undergarment fewer than normal. Rubbing the back of his head, he backed toward the door and turned toward it.

"Alright then. Well…sleep well Sakura-chan." He reached for the doorknob but paused before opening as she called his name. Turning back around, he found she was right there, and before he could think of what to say or do, she placed her hands on his chest and went up on her toes to kiss his cheek softly. Losing himself for a moment he turned into her and kissed her through his mask, one hand going up into her hair. Coming to his senses as he felt her start to kiss him back, he dropped his hand and took a step back. Her eyes looked slightly dazed and he cursed himself. Shit, shit, shit. You're really going to hell now. That or the hospital - she's going to kill you!

But she just stood there for a moment.

Not knowing what else to do, he smiled and whispered out "Good night, Blossom," before he slipped out the door. Walking across the patio to the edge of the covered area, he glanced back. He could see her silhouette at the door still standing there. For a moment he thought about going back to apologize. He shouldn't have done that. But he breathed a small sigh of relief as she reached out and locked the deadbolt. He watched her turn around and walk away a moment.

The rain had slowed down, but was still coming down heavily enough. Kakashi would have to run to keep from getting soaked through. Jumping out from under his shelter, he perched on the railing intending to spring away toward his home, but as he looked back he saw the unmistakeable motion of the dress falling from her silhouette. He froze and felt his heart thundering in his chest. He would have sworn the rain would evaporate as it hit his skin. As she stepped out of her dress and turned toward her bed, Kakashi's throat went a little dry and he swallowed hard.

Lightning flashed and the light inside flickered, bringing him back to the present. The very wet, soggy present.

 _So much for trying to keep dry,_ he thought, springing away. Smirking as he bounded toward his home, he was glad the rain was slightly on the cold side.


	3. Chapter 3

Kakashi found himself restless that night, battling with his conscience over what had happened with the pinkette. He hadn't thought of her as truly his student for years. He had been more focused on Sasuke and Naruto. She had really gotten the bulk of her training through Tsunade. The problem was, he was happier than he should have been that she hadn't gone home with Genma or one of the dozen others who had been eyeing her in the bar. None of them were bad people. In fact, many he would consider friends, or skilled shinobi at least. Getting to bring her safely back to her own home was icing on the cake…and the contact and unabashed staring he had done when nobody else could see were the sprinkles.

But he was her senior by a number of years. That couldn't be okay. Could it?

 _Well…maybe. Genma is a bit older than I, and nobody seemed to mind him. Sakura certainly didn't._ A small green demon awoke at this thought and Kakashi did his best to stomp it down mentally.

Deciding he should distract himself away from thoughts of Sakura, Kakashi decided to get up and go for a walk as the sun peaked over the tree tops. While it being a Saturday certainly wasn't a guarantee of a day off, Kakashi tried not to go into the office unless necessary. His shinobi and Shikamaru would find him elsewhere if they truly needed anything, and they frequently did. So instead of donning his hokage robes and hat, Kakashi opted for his old jounin wear.

He missed being able to go out on missions. True, he still trained with the ANBU in order to keep his skills sharp, and he certainly didn't miss the silly missions he now handed out to his shinobi, but he missed the purpose of knowing sometimes that he was one of the only people that could accomplish a task required. He felt like the role of hokage was one that he did fairly well, but it just wasn't the same. Plus it obviously left little time for one of his favorite hobbies: reading the Icha Icha books.

As he wandered he found himself on the familiar trail to his favorite cafe. The were well acquainted with him and all he had to do was walk in for them to start up his usual breakfast order. Declining the normal food he typically got to go, he opted for just a cup of coffee today; he wasn't really feeling very hungry. He was too busy thinking back on missions. Most of those that came to mind included Sakura.

As he waited for the fresh pot of coffee to finish brewing so they could give him his order, Kakashi looked around the little shop. They had a few small tables and a small merchandise section filled with coffee, teas, and various gift sets. It was then that he noticed the deep burgundy set of tea cups, decorated with delicate pink cherry blossoms and a matching tea pot. As if the cherry blossoms weren't enough to remind him of Sakura, the burgundy brought to mind the dress she had worn last night.

He smiled and turned to the woman who was now pouring coffee into a to-go cup for him.

—

Sakura groaned as she felt a dull ache pulsing in her head as she rolled over in her bed. Snuggling into the fluffy blankets, it took her a moment for her brain to engage, but when it did she groaned again. Bringing her hands to her face she muttered, "what on earth is wrong with me…"

Not only had she had more than enough to drink last night, but she had been escorted home by Kakashi. Her hokage had needed to bring her home.

"Uggggghhhhh."

He had needed to carry her upstairs.

"Uggggghhhhh…"

And then she had kissed him.

She smacked herself in the forehead, causing a bigger jolt of pain that she had expected with her mild hangover.

Wincing, it occurred to her though that Kakashi had kissed her back. Granted his mask was on. Did that count? Had he known what he was doing or was she misunderstanding? She hadn't considered the latter at the time. No, of course not. Instead, she had decided it would be a grand idea to shed her dress in a manner that should have provided quite the suggestive show with her silhouette.

 _There's no way he noticed that. I'm sure he was already gone._

 _Except Kakashi is a bit of a perv…hence all the icha icha books. So maybe not._

Sakura couldn't decide if she thought that was a good or a bad possibility. She couldn't say that she had never noticed him as a woman could notice a man. While she never had seen his full face, she had seen him show his strength, skill, and intelligence numerous times over the years. And when he had lost his Sharingan during the war, she had been the one he had asked to look at his returned eyes. He didn't like hospitals, so when he decided he should have them looked at he had of course come to Sakura. He trusted no medic more, and he had told her as much.

She remembered staring into those dark eyes on several occasions and finding herself captivated as her hands held his face, pushing her chakra through him during those check-ups. Thank goodness he couldn't read minds to know that half the time she wasn't even paying attention to what she was supposed to be reading from him. He just thought she was being extra thorough.

Ripping her mind away from the trance of his eyes staring at her from out of her memories, she glanced at the clock. It was nine AM. Part of her was surprised she had slept this late. Normally she couldn't get her body to forego the schedule it had gotten used to first as a ninja, then as a medic. At least she had gotten a couple extra hours of sleep.

She walked to the bathroom, smelling the alcohol leaking through her pores and she needed a shower anyway. Thirty minutes later she stepped from the steam-filled room wrapped in her bathrobe and her hair twisted up in a towel on top of her head. She might as well start unpacking her clothes now. Since she needed to find some more clean undergarments anyway this seemed like the perfect place to start her day of unpacking and organizing. She had been here almost a week and had barely bothered to open a box.

She walked across the room to her windows and slid open the curtains to let in the light. This really was her favorite part of her new home. The giant windows and double doors leading out to her patio. She was hoping to find the time to start an herb garden there. There was plenty of space for medicinal herbs that required sun, shade, and a combination of both with the lovely canopy.

Looking out to where her mind was imagining raised garden beds that she would fill with plants, she stopped. In front of the double doors was a brown package with a white bow wrapped around it and a slip of paper tucked under the ribbon. Glancing around her patio, she opened the door. Seeing nothing else around to make her concerned, she picked up the box. Pulling out the slip of paper and unfolding it, she immediately recognized the horrible chicken scratch there.

Kakashi.

 _Happy house-warming._

 _\- K_

Stunned, Sakura turned and placed the box on the bed, pulling at the ends of the ribbon to untie the bow. Inside the box she found eight individually wrapped pottery tea cups, burgundy in color with pink cherry blossoms floating across. She blushed and pulled out a matching tea pot and a container of loose leaf green tea.

Stomach tight, she stared for a moment at the gift. Kakashi was a thoughtful man, but not really one to shower people with gifts. Actually, she and the rest of team seven had been stuck with the bill from him on numerous occasions. Granted, it seemed fair when half the time they had been trying to catch him without his mask. They had tried many times, but had never been successful. This gesture from him made her breath catch. It surely hadn't been cheap. This set was handmade and imported from the Land of Tea, which was home to several renowned potters.

She would treasure it, and not only because of the craftsmanship.

Face beaming, she carefully tucked the set back into the box so she could take it downstairs to the kitchen. Touching the blossoms floating across one of the cups once more, she turned to get dressed and sorted through her clothing as quickly as was possible, which admittedly took longer than she would have hoped. A little over an hour later, her closet was organized (or as much as her closet ever was). She had chosen to put on her favorite pair of white shorts, a light green wrapped shirt similar to what Tsunade had always worn, and a darker green obi, she decided she should go thank Kakashi. After combing through her long hair and braiding it loosely, Sakura picked up Kakashi's gift and proceeded downstairs, staring at it with tender eyes.

—

He could just make out her patio from his kitchen window. He couldn't see the double doors that he had left the package on from here, but he hoped she would find the gift and that she would like it. Hopefully it wasn't too cliched.

 _Yeah…give Sakura something with cherry blossoms….so original Kakashi..._

He sighed, thinking maybe he would take a small detour on his way to the office to just peak and see if she had found his gift. Ebisu's team had returned from their mission two days late and Shikamaru had stopped by to tell him as much. As soon as he was finished cleaning up his breakfast he would be meeting the team in his office for the debriefing. Kakashi hadn't been worried, but obviously something hadn't quite gone to plan to have kept them two extra days.

Knocking on his door brought the silver haired ninja out of his internal struggle over Sakura and his gift to her. He set down his dish towel and proceeded to answer the front door. Opening it, he heard a familiar voice - or rather a familiar yawn. In front of him was a tired looking Naruto, rubbing his eyes and slumped like he had been sleep-walking here.

"Ohayou, Ka…..Kakashi-saaaaaannnn" he yawned, "Shikamaru said I should be there for the debriefing today?"

Kakashi smiled at the still yawning Naruto. "That's a good idea. But how did he get you up? I thought he had given up on trying to get you up for unplanned morning meetings?" Shikamaru was a good assistant, and was doing his best to help his friend get ready to become Hokage himself some day. It didn't surprise Kakashi that the Nara had thought of this. But it really did surprise him that he had been successful.

Naruto blushed. "Hinata…she was there and woke me after Shikamaru woke her with the doorbell." He grinned sleepily and rubbed the back of his neck at his sensei.

Kakashi chuckled. He'd have to remember the effectiveness of Hinata's assistance in future. _I'm sure Shikamaru won't forget it, though._ Grabbing his keys from the hook on the wall, Kakashi left with Naruto for hokage tower.

—

"Is there anything else we should know, Ebisu?" Naruto asked, standing next to Kakashi's chair behind the desk. Kakashi himself was sitting in his place as the hokage with Naruto on his right, Shikamaru on his left. He had mostly been listening to the debriefing taking place before him and was letting Naruto take the reins on this. It was good practice for the shinobi. Plus it was his day off. What were apprentice-hokages for if not to do most of the work on the weekends?

Ebisu indicated that there was no more, and quirked one eyebrow as the jinchuuriki crossed his arms over his chest and put on a stern face.

"If that's the case…," he said with authority, causing Kakashi's own eyebrows to go up with interest at his tone, "Konohamaru, I'm disappointed in you." Everyone's eyes now shot to Naruto. Konohamaru looked startled.

"I would have thought this was the perfect time to further you Sexy no Jutsu!" he shouted, hands on his hips and huffing. Everyone except Naruto and Konohamaru deadpanned.

Immediately the two started bickering about who's pervert jutsu was better.

Kakashi smiled under his mask at his apprentice. While he had matured in some ways and grown immensely stronger….Naruto really hadn't changed at all. Catching part of their argument about whether or not it is effective to have accessories in the jutsu pertaining to fetishes like a medical check-up, Kakashi's mind went straight to hell.

Instantly an image of Sakura wearing nothing but a stethoscope flashed in his mind, aided by the views he had caught last night. When the front of her dress had bunched up while she had been in his arms reaching for her shoe...he had had perfect line of sight at that angle to see much more of one full and perfectly perky breast than had been visible all night. This was saying something since he caught himself staring at the stretch of bare skin and just visible rounding of her breasts several times throughout the night. While she had still been somewhat covered by the damned fabric, he had seen part of a beautifully pink nipple for just a moment. In his mind he saw it again, but covered partially by the end of a stethoscope instead of the lustful deep red cloth…

Before his mind could drown him in the gutter fueled by his icha icha books, he snatched a round candy from the small bowl on his desk and without looking, flicked it expertly into the face on his right. It went straight up one nostril of the blonde and lodged itself where it could still be clearly seen by everyone in the room.

Hearing Shikamaru snort on his other side, Kakashi looked innocently up at the blonde's glaring blue eyes for a moment.

Seeing his sensei raise one eyebrow at him and glance pointedly toward the four standing in the middle of the room, Naruto put on an air of dignity and removed the candy from his nose with a sharp burst of air. Trying to pretend that the conversation had not deviated from the mission, Naruto laid out plans for Ebisu and team to gather a second team of his choice and return to the village that had been occupied by a group of rogue ninja before their arrival, in order to determine if any of the criminals had escaped the team's capture while freeing the village from occupation.

After a few more minutes of planning, Naruto deferred to Kakashi in case he had left anything out.

"Alright then," he said crinkling his eyes in his typical fashion and running a hand through his silver hair. "I'm going home then. Thank you team Ebisu. Take a day off to recover and resupply before you leave please, and notify Shikamaru what team will be aiding you. Several are out are on missions, so please let us know if you need assistance finding a suitable team. Dismissed." He waved his hand and stood up to head toward an open window.

Before Shikamaru could object and sneak in another order of work while he was present, Kakashi jumped out the window and could be seen jumping over rooftops toward his home. Naruto smiled at his lazy sensei and resumed his conversation with Konohamaru over the finer points of appealing to fetishes as they walked out of the room together. Shikamaru sighed and shook his head, just grateful neither of them had chosen to enact their jutsu yet. Ebisu was a frequent victim to it, as he had been discovered years ago to be a closet perv and the arguing pair had quickly decided he was a perfect test subject.

Dropping to the ground after a few blocks, Kakashi pulled out his second favorite Icha Icha book and began reading it as he strolled home. This particular section concerned a rather busty housemaid a her encounter with the estate's chauffeur driver. Engrossed in his book despite knowing exactly what happened, he was surprised to look up and find himself in front of Sakura's new home. The smell of food drifting through one of her open windows made his stomach growl. The debriefing had taken longer than expected and it was now well into the day.

Deciding the aroma smelled too good to pass up, he smiled and stowed his book back in his pocket and turned toward Sakura's front door. His recent generousity not withstanding, he was still cheap; yes, that's the reason he was so happy to find himself standing on her stoop and knocking, smile on his face. Maybe he could convince Sakura to feed her poor hungry friend who had been forced to work on his day off. Nothing else could be the cause.

He found himself disappointed, however, when there was no answer. He didn't hear anything from inside either.

 _Maybe she's having her lunch on the patio,_ he thought to himself. Smiling, he bounded over to the side of the building, where he jumped up to perch on her patio railing as he had done only a few hours ago. A flash of what he had seen last night flickered before his eyes as he looked across the patio to the numerous windows lining her bedroom, causing him to feel his cheeks warm a bit.

Sakura wasn't up here either. He noted with pleasure that she had found his gift, however. Glancing in the window, he noticed the pile of empty boxes by the doors. She had been busy already this morning. He smiled at the thought of her settling in to this new place, only a stone's throw from his own home. Okay, that was being a little optimistic perhaps, but still she was quite close. He was very pleased that he may be able to see the medic more frequently than he had in the last year.

This thought helped to ease his disappointment at the lack of her presence currently. He jumped back down to the street and began walking back toward the shopping district of Konoha. Now he was hungry, and he certainly didn't feel like more work today, so cooking was out of the question. Nose back in his book he rounded the corner, wondering if he would find Naruto at Ichiraku's as well.

—

Sakura had been waiting for a few minutes now, to no avail. Kakashi was either not home, or didn't want to be disturbed on his day off. Or maybe he was avoiding her after her embarrassingly drunk experience with him last night.

 _No…why would he bring me a present if he was avoiding me? You're freaking out, Sakura_ , she told herself.

Taking a deep breath, she decided he was not home and that's all there was to it. He had obviously already been out today, since he had to have come back to drop off her present this morning. Knowing him he was hiding somewhere from Shikamaru. She smiled and shook her head, deciding to come back later. Not wanting the food to spoil if he took too long coming home, she simply took the meal with her. He shouldn't receive a cold meal as a thank you anyway.

Walking back to her home she berated herself for being silly anyway.

Had she left just a little earlier, or walked just a little faster, she would have seen the silver head disappear around the corner down the street, both oblivious to their poor timing.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Hi all! Happy New Year! Thanks for the feedback and comments on the story so far - I'm taking today and working on a couple more chapters. For now, I'm going to upload a couple I have already done. There's a little citrus in a future chapter, and I'm sure there will be more later on as well. Please keep the reviews coming - I'm always open to suggestions and feedback!_

Sakura unlocked her front door and shut it behind her with a sigh. Deciding she might as well have lunch and keep the leftovers for later, she sat down at her little kitchen table and opened one of the containers she had prepared. She wasn't a great cook, but she was far better than she used to be and this curry was her specialty. It was still nice and hot thanks to the thermal bag she had received from Naruto for her last birthday. He was always hungry and flabergasted at how she could go for most of the day with practically nothing to eat when she got busy. So he had bought them dinner, put it in the thermal bag to keep it hot, and had brought her dinner while she worked late. She loved it actually. Sometimes she sent the genin trainees to get her dinner with the bag, and it had really been the most thoughtful gift she had ever received from the blonde air-head.

Taking a second bite, she jumped a little as there was a loud knock at the front door. Setting down her chopsticks, she furrowed her brow and walked to the door. She could see a navy long sleeve shirt and the green jounin flak vest through the window along the side of her door.

Opening it, she was greeted by a pair of brown eyes and a smirk that held a senbon. He looked completely at ease as he usually did, with his hands in his pockets.

"Genma! What are you doing here?"

"Hey Sakura-chan," he smiled at her, meeting her slightly shocked eyes. "Sorry to intrude...you kind of disappeared last night and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Oh, that's sweet of you," she blushed. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you," she grinned back at him. Her smile slipped a little as something occurred to her. "But how did you know where I live? I just moved in a couple days ago," she gestured to the boxes clearly visible behind her.

Genma rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah. I found that out when I went to your old place. I was going to grab some lunch then but I ran into Naruto. I told him I wanted to check on you and he told me where you had moved to. I hope you don't mind. I was going to offer to walk you home last night to make sure you got here safe, but you disappeared before I could offer."

It was Sakura's turn to be slightly embarrassed now. Her blush returned and she looked down at the floor. "Sorry about that, Genma. I realized I had a bit too much and just kind of decided to slip out. I didn't mean to be rude...I just have a lot to do today...," she gestured at the boxes behind her again.

"Don't worry about it! Like I said, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I hope you have a great day!" he said, turning to go. He was stopped when she put her hand on his forearm. He turned his head to look directly at her and raised an eyebrow.

"W-would you like to come in for lunch? I was just sitting down to eat. I have extra made up."

"I'd be happy to. But only if you don't mind."

"Of course not. Please come in...unless you're going to judge my messy piles of boxes!"

He chuckled and came inside, removing his shoes out of politeness. The pinkette stood there waiting for him and when he was ready to follow her through the maze of boxes he offered her his hand for balance to maneuver through the currently crowded entry area.

She felt a couple of butterflies as she took his hand and started to lead the way. His other hand rested on the small of her back until she was in an area clear of boxes. He chuckled as he saw the blush creep farther onto her cheeks than it already was.

Genma followed her to the small dining table in the other room and sat down where she indicatd as she pulled a second bento box from a bag on the counter and set it in front of him with chopsticks and a glass of water. She apologized for the lack of anything else to drink, but she hadn't had a chance to go shopping yet, and Naruto and some of the other guys had cleaned out her soft drinks and kombucha during the move.

He laughed and told her it was perfectly fine. They said thank you for the food and began to eat. Sakura inquired as to events after she had left last night and Genma happily obliged. TenTen had apparently ended up in a dark corner with one of the Hyugas. Ino had ordered a couple more rounds of shots before the end of the night and had been walked home by Rock Lee. Or rather, had bee given a piggy back ride since Lee never missed an opportunity to "train". He had said something about next time a comrade needed assistance getting home after exhausting themselves in a fight, he would not lose to his sensei.

Genma looked confused at what that had meant, so Sakura enlightened him about the time Guy had carried Kakashi all the way home from Suna before the war. This got them started with exchanging mission stories and before she knew it, over two hours had passed while they visited. She jumped up from her chair and started rambling about unpacking and losing track of time. She stopped, realizing she was being rude again whenshe heard Genma chuckling behind her.

"I'm sorry Sakura. It's my fault for distracting you from your duties today. Can I help you at all? I can help you move the big things around if you need it. And knowing you, there's half a library in these boxes. I can move them around for you if you tell me where to take them."

Taking a deep breath to calm herself slightly, Sakura smiled at Genma. "Thank you, but I'm okay. I kind of just tossed everything into random boxes anyway. I didn't have much time to pack so there's not much rhyme or reason to it. Besides," she said as her grin turned into a playful smirk, "I'm stronger than you."

He laughed at that. "When you use your chakra, you certainly are and I know it. But what kind of guy would I be if I didn't offer?"

She grinned at his acknowledgement of her strength before turning to walk with him to the door. Once again, he offered her a hand to steady herself and guided her with his hand at the small of her back around the entryway.

"Thank you again for coming to check on me, Genma. That really was quite sweet of you," she said as they stepped out onto the stoop.

"Anytime, Sakura-chan. Thank you for lunch. It was much better than I expected after hearing Naruto complain about your cooking the last few years. I don't know how he could have anything bad to say about it after a meal like that."

"He only complains about my food pills," she grumbled, "they don't taste great but even Tsunade-sama says they're the most effective she's ever seen. I just haven't had time to bother with making them taste better...but they aren't that bad." She looked down at her feet, realizing she was pouting.

He chuckled and gave her hand a squeeze, causing Sakura to realize he was still holding it from having helped her through the boxes. Her eyes widened a bit and she glanced at her hand in his, only to have her eyes widen even further as she felt him give her a soft peck on the small diamond-shaped seal in the middle of her forehead.

"Have a good rest of your day," he smiled, as he released her hand. As she watched him turn and walk down the path and then down the road in the direction of the center of the city where he lived, her forehead tingled and her face burned with a blush several shades brighter than her hair. She was so focused on her surprise and the ninja strolling leisurely away, she didn't notice the silver haired man where he had stopped in his tracks down the road behind her. Frowning under his mask, he turned and walked back toward his own home before she could see him.

Kakashi walked up his path kicking a rock every few feet. What he saw had troubled him, and that in turn troubled him. He had no right to be upset. Sakura was a single young woman and was free to see whomever she wanted to. He just didn't like it being Genma. He hadn't realized that they were together, but what he had seen as he walked up seemed rather intimate. Walking into his home he slammed the door behind him, knowing he was being ridiculous as he did so.

Throwing himself onto his couch, he pulled out the well-worn copy of Icha Icha Tactics and opened to one of the dog-eared pages at random. Rather than reading however, he simply stared at the page contemplating the afternoon's events. He had joined Guy for lunch and had spent some time discussing how Guy was training his upper body and mind since he was still confined to a wheelchair after the war. Guy had also dropped a few impressively subtle hints at Kakashi regarding his favorite medic and that Kakashi's youth knew "no bounds" unless Kakashi set them himself. Since Guy had been forced to adapt to his situation after the war he had become a bit more perceptive. He might not remember meeting people that he didn't know well, but for those he did know, Guy had learned quite a bit from his more careful observation. This was especially true for his greatest rival.

Kakashi had never talked with him about Sakura, but he could tell the blue beast noticed the way he interacted with her. He was certain Guy knew that Sakura had been sneaking out the back door of the bar last night as well as Kakashi himself had been leaving. Guy wasn't usually thought of as a sly one, but Kakashi had noticed this slight change in his jumpsuit-clad friend the last couple years.

When Kakashi had returned home after lunch, he had sat in this same spot for a half hour before he decided it wouldn't be silly of him to go stop by Sakura's home to check on how she was feeling. Just to be sure. But he had rounded the corner down the street from her house to see her holding hands with Genma. The kiss he had seen was perfectly innocent and one-sided.

 _...but she didn't pull away, either._

He sat there so long analyzing the situation he had stumbled upon that the light started to fade as the sun set. Deciding he had stressed enough about this where he was, he got up and left his house again. He would at least stress about this somewhere else. He knew himself well enough by now to know that until he reached a decision he wasn't going to be able to let it go.

Sakura smiled and dusted off her hands as she finished breaking down the last of her empty boxes. It was now just after nine PM, and she hadn't stopped for more than a glass of water since Genma had left, but she was done. She still needed to organize her bookshelves to the way she liked them, but who was she kidding? In a week they'd be a mess again so why bother now?

Taking a deep breath she caught a whiff of herself and grimaced. She'd been working furiously, moving from one box to the next as quickly as possible. She had sprinted up and down the stairs, used her chakra to walk on the walls and ceiling as the floor had become littered with piles of items to be put away, and generally had used the unpacking as an opportunity to train physically. She trained as consistently as she could, but usually it was her medical jutsus that she worked on, not her strength, speed, or stamina. She missed this feeling of being tired from physical activity...but certainly not the smell. She could feel the soreness starting as well, despite the stress of unpacking being lifted.

Grinning to herself, she grabbed a bag and stuffed some clothes into it, slipped on her ninja shoes, and ran out the door. She ran hard, working up a new sweat but rejoicing in the cool feeling of air moving past her as she ran. Turning a corner, she noticed Kakashi's house was dark as she passed and she found herself pondering over the two men she had been trying not to think of for the last several hours. The pinkette was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice when she passed the hotsprings until she was a few blocks past it.

Sighing, she jumped to a street light, using her momentum as she grabbed the bar to swing her feet up and over her head. Releasing back in the direction she had come from, she twisted in the air in order to face forward as she dropped to the ground and ran back to the hotsprings. She giggled a bit as she completed the maneuver. She missed this kind of training. Her job just kept her to busy to be able to indulge.

Sakura slowed as she came up to the hotsprings so as not to be rude to the other patrons. It wasn't actually necessary, though. 9:30 PM on a Saturday...nobody was here. Those that weren't out on missions were likely having a night out on the town, not sitting in the hotsprings like an old woman. An old, sore, smelly, and tired woman. Before heading into the women's locker rooms, she requested a pot of tea and some dango from the women's spring attendant. She thought about a bottle of sake for a moment, but after last night she knew she should just stick with the tea. The old woman giggled at Sakura's sweet tooth and handed her a fluffy clean towel and left to get the tea ready.

A few minutes later found Sakura soaking in the hotsprings as the attendant brought her order to her. Sakura thanked her, taking a cup of tea the woman had poured for her and holding it to her chest, just above the water, inhaling the calming aroma.

After a time, her teapot was empty, her sweet tooth was satisfied and her fingers were starting to get wrinkled from soaking so long. Deciding she needed to get home and get some sleep so she could hit the scrolls tomorrow, she climbed out of the hot spring and wrapped the towel around herself.

Clean and feeling much more relaxed than she had in several days (living out of boxes would do that to you), Sakura went back to the ladies' locker room to change into her clean clothes. She had brought a mesh tank top, a black long sleeve crop top to go over it, and her typical little, black shorts. The tops had been a gift from Ino a while back. She had insisted that Sakura had "a great figure and should show it off from time to time." The crop top ended well above her belly button and was relatively loose. It definitely was more fashion than anything remotely practical. Hell, she felt like if a strong wind blew she might lose what little coverage the crop top provided for her. But, she had to admit she looked good in it as she checked out her reflection in the mirror. It was also a perfect outfit to wear right after the hot springs, which was her point in bringing it here. It allowed her body to adjust back to a normal temperature faster after sitting in the hot water for so long. There was nothing worse than a relaxing session in the hot springs followed by putting on clothes that made you sweat all over again.

Who was she kidding. She liked the way it looked and she was just too shy to wear it out during the day. This gave her a good excuse.

She wasn't the only one who liked the outfit either. As she exited Kakashi stepped out from the men's locker room. He wanted to go talk to her, to walk her home. But after seeing her with Genma this afternoon he had lost his courage. He had grappled with his thoughts once he had heard her voice thanking the attendant bring her an order and asking if she needed anything else. Should he call out to her to talk? It was just the two of them there and nobody else was likely to come in on a Saturday night at this hour. He had only come to try and work out his thoughts.

Instead of leaving, he dawdled for a couple minutes, thanking the attendant and complimenting the quality of the facility. When he did finally step out into the night air, he could just see her rounding a corner. He let out a sigh of mixed relief and disappointment as the last of her long beautiful hair was lost to view, and started toward where she had disappeared, going home as well. He knew the next couple of days were already going to be bothersome with his duties as Hokage, and this certainly hadn't made it any better. Wouldn't she be on a date with Genma on a Saturday evening? Maybe they weren't that serious? Genma was known for being a flirt. Maybe he had read too much into what he saw? But what did that mean then? Even as her friend and hokage, he hadn't known she lived there, but Genma did.

He sighed, knowing the next couple days were going to be full of him analyzing this from every angle.


	5. Chapter 5

Shikamaru sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. _What a drag._

 _Maybe he forgot. He has been distracted the last couple of days._ Shikamaru sighed again and rolled his eyes; who was he kidding? He knew the Hokage hated hospitals and seeing doctors in general, but this was getting ridiculous. He had received a fourth notification that Kakashi had missed his check-up appointment.

*Why do they keep scheduling these? They know he'll just skip it again. He knows they can't make him go and nothing happens when he doesn't show. Now I have to deal with this again?* he muttered, tossing the scroll into the pile to be discarded later.

Deciding he needed to figure out how to either get Kakashi to go or trick him into going, Shikamaru started his work for the day. He had to review and file mission reports from standard ranking missions, but also had to be sure to brief himself on some of the ANBU missions that had taken place over the last couple weeks. Kakashi was a great Hokage, but Shikamaru knew his own presence and attention to detail was as vital to keeping things running smoothly in the Leaf as Shizune had been during Tsundae's time as hokage. Kakashi's interest in reading did not always include mission reports. Actually, it really didn't at all. More than once Shikamaru had caught him "reading" a scroll, only to find one of Jiraiya's novels in front of it.

After lunch, he started gathering the new mission documentation for Kakashi to assign to teams the next day when he heard footsteps approaching down the hall. Looking up, a woman with pink hair made an idea strike him with almost as much force as the woman herself could have mustered.

"Uhhh...Shikamaru?" Sakura said, slightly creeped out by the intensity of his stare at her as she approached. She grew more concerned when he split into a grin that was the biggest she had ever seen on his face. He was usually a relatively stoic individual; bored by nearly everything.

"Sakura! Good to see you!" he said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "What can I help you with?"

Still slightly concerned with her friend's odd behavior, she smiled quietly back at him. "Oh, uhhh...I noticed Kakashi-sama missed his appointment with Shizune this morning. Well," she giggled, "actually I heard about it. From a ways down the hall...I thought I might try to corner him into taking care of his physical myself, since I know his tricks..."

 _Well this is convenient timing_ , he thought to himself.

"She was upset, then? I don't blame her. This is the fourth time. I'll have to figure out how to get him to apologize again then. What a bother...," he replied. A glance at the clock spurred him to enact his plan immediately. Asking Sakura to wait there for just a moment and slipped into the Hokage's office.

Entering, he saw the meeting hadn't officially started yet, as he had hoped. Kakashi was still delaying the conversation with discussions on some topics that were completed unrelated to what the meeting was actually for. The ANBU commander was here to actually discuss plans for the coming trips to the five kage summit and then to various villages following. Kakashi had been adament about not only maintaining the summits through times of peace, but to making efforts to spend time in the other countries as well. He insisted that in order to maintain peace strong relationships must be formed between leaders.

Shikamaru had agreed with the logic of this. Knowing your allies, and knowing them well, lent itself to stronger relationships between all. When some kind of incident happened, it meant that villages were less likely to jump to blame an uninvolved nation if they were not only allies, but friends. It only made sense. Especially since those that had opposed the alliance for the war were only more disgruntled now that the alliance was being maintained after the war. While each country was still separate, there was ground-breaking developments in cooperation between nations.

This plan of summits and visiting the other villages and kages had, however, brought about a few complications. Shikamaru knew part of the reason Kakashi wanted to pursue these things wasn't simply out of his desire to ensure peace, but was also because he hated being cooped up in the office. The silver-haired ninja missed the action of missions. But Kakashi is the Hokage, and that meant he couldn't just go galavanting off. As strong as he was, harm could still come to him since he was now the face of Kohona. In fact, he attracted a lot more attention now.

"Shikamaru," Kakashi said, noting the commander's nod at the boy as well. _Oh good. I was running out of small talk to keep him off the subject. Shikamaru looks happy about something...and it must be important to interrupt ths meeting._ Kakashi started to feel relief that he might not have to avoid this conversation himself any more...Shikamaru would do it for him!

"Hokage-sama. Taichou-sama. I believe I have a solution to our problem!"

Kakashi's mood plummetted.

The other two men could see him deflate. Both knew he was trying to avoid the extensive ANBU guard that had so far been their best option to both protect Kakashi and to keep him from slipping away for quiet and to read his books. Shikamaru could usually puzzle out Kakashi's tricks either in time to derail them or so he was only gone a few minutes. But since Shikamaru needed to stay in the village as his representative while Kakashi was travelling, and not many people knew Kakashi that well, the best next option had been to innundate the Hokage with more body guards than he could escape. Or at least to make it hard enough that it deterred him from trying to sneak off. Kakashi had first tried to claim that Naruto was plenty, but when the ANBU commander had said "ramen" Naruto had practically fallen over himself to talk about going to Ichiraku's, thus proving Naruto couldn't exactly be trusted to keep Kakashi from slipping away.

Looking at the strategizing genius, the ANBU leader tilted his head at the young man, wondering what solution could possibly have come up to make him grin so.

Answering the look from the masked man and rolling his eyes at his deflated hokage, Shikamaru said simply, "Sakura."

Kakashi's head snapped up at that.

 _Curious_ , Shikamaru thought to himself as he continued his explanation. "We make her an ANBU guard. She of course knows the Hokage well and he would be hard pressed to get away from her. She should also be good at keeping him focused on his work. I think she scares him as much or more than Tsunade-sama."

"I'm right here...," the silver ninja muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "...I think people forget I'm their Hokage..." he said even quieter.

"She's exceptionally strong and an exceptionally talented medic as well," Shikamaru continued, ignoring the mumbles behind the desk. "If something were to happen, she's the best we have and she'd be with him. What's more, she could handle the diplomatic settings with ease. She healed hundreds during the war and is well known and loved for that. She'd be an exceptional representative to have as the face of our village."

"Because the hokage isn't a good enough representative?" Kakashi muttered some more.

"Hmm…that's not a bad idea, Nara."

"She won't do it. She won't leave the hospital," Kakashi interrupted.

 _Also curious_ , Shikamaru thought to himself, as Kakashi looked slightly disappointed at his own conclusion.

"I'm going to go check on something. One moment, Hokage-sama. Taichou-sama." And with that he bowed slightly and left the room, closing the door again behind him.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow from behind his desk, watching the door over his steepled fingers. What was that boy up to? What could he possibly be checking on related to this?

—

Shikamaru returned from the hokage's office hurriedly, and came right up to Sakura with a determined look on his face. She raised her eyebrows at him as he approached.

"Sakura," he intoned seriously. "I've noticed that you haven't been able to make it through many of the classified scrolls lately."

She shook her head, slightly embarrassed at what she took as a slight reprimand from her former classmate.

"How would you like to be able to focus on them more for a few months?"

"I'd love to, Shika-kun. It's just that the hospital keeps me so busy. And it's not even patients really. The paperwork takes up most of my time…I barely even get to train anymore it feels like."

"Perfect."

Sakura was startled by his response and gave him a confused look. Her eyes widened as he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hokage's office without knocking.

Kakashi was also confused. When did Sakura come here? And what was she here for?

"Sakura," Shikamaru started to explain, "how would you like to become an ANBU and personal guard to the Hokage?" He saw her eyebrows fly up in even further surprise before he continued. "You would accompany Hokage-sama on every trip, including the kage summit. You would be one of only a few, and would be a guard, his personal medic - since he can't ever seem to go to the doctor even when he has an appointment-," he shot an annoyed look at Kakashi as the man in question rubbed the back of his neck, "and in general be an ambassador of sorts since you're well known throughout the allied shinobi.

"You would of course be an under-cover ANBU," he continued, "since your hair kind of gives you away, but that would be for the best. Those who don't know you, especially those that rejected the alliance, wouldn't expect you to be as formidable as we all know you are. When the hokage is here, then your only duty will be to deal with the scroll research and potentially assist in the treatment of ANBU ninja. The travel would also provide you with great opportunities to do further research in other nations to supplement the scrolls. Apart from participating in ANBU training of course."

Kakashi was impressed. Shikamaru had shown his thorough and cunning nature again. It was a well thought-out rationale. He wondered how long Shikamaru had been rolling the idea around in his mind. Sakura might actually accept such an assignment. He felt hopeful again, which didn't go unnoticed by Shikamaru despite the nearly imperceptible changes it made to his face and posture.

"Wow, Shika-kun, Hokage-sama, Taichou-sama," she said, bowing slightly at each in turn. It was quite the sudden request; completely unexpected. Thinking of the pile of files on her desk that she had left, and her growing weariness of such desk work, she had to admit it was tempting. It would give her a balance of missions and research, and allow her to train to an even higher level physically than she was before. "This is quite the offer. But why me?"

She looked around at the three men before stopping and noticing Shikamaru's eyes darting back from Kakashi. The slight annoyance evident in his eyes made her think.

"Wait a second. Surely there are plenty of ANBU for this, aren't there?" She tapped her bottom lip with one long index finger, cocking her head at the three as she looked around the room again.

"You need a BABYSITTER!" she yelled, figuring out why she had been singled out from a pool of well-qualified elite ANBU members. "He's always trying to sneak off, so you want me to make sure he doesn't since I know him! Baka!" She turned her head to face Kakashi for the last word. He was rubbing his neck in his characteristic fashion again.

"In part, yes," the ANBU commander said quietly. Sakura could hear the amusement in his voice. "But you would be beyond valuable for your medical jutsu as well. If anything were to befall the hokage, he would stand no better chance of survival than if you were there to help when he's away from the leaf."

"Actually," Shikamaru interjected, "it would be the same if he was in the leaf. Tsunade-sama readily admits you've surpassed her healing abilities now."

"What about Tsunade-shishou? And the hospital?" Sakura blushed, obviously pleased with the praise from the commander and her friend.

"We received a request from the Land of Mist to allow several medical ninja to come to the Leaf to train at our hospital. If we accept them they should more than make up for the difference," Shikamaru rattled off.

"What?" Kakashi asked. "When did that come through?" He was surprised, but was starting to like the way this was going.

Shikamaru sweatdropped. "Hokage-sama, you were supposed to read it this morning. Did you read Icha Icha instead again?"

Kakashi hung his head looking slightly embarrassed.

"It's settled then!" the commander said happily. He was looking forward to seeing what the kunoichi could do, and Kakashi was surprisingly silent on this development; an improvement from the last several suggestions that he had opposed before they were even fully voiced.

"I'll talk to shishou," Sakura started, but the ANBU commander waved her off.

"Allow me. There are some details I need to inform her of anyway as she may very well be assisting Shikamaru while the hokage is out of the village with you."

"It's like I'm not even here…nobody asks my opinion on it…" muttered the deep voice behind the desk.

Sakura rolled her eyes, and then was struck with an idea. She appeared next to him at his desk, leaning over so they were eye level with one another and none too far apart. "I'm sorry HOKAGE-sama. What was that? I definitely want to make sure you're confident in my appointment to this position to assist you."

Kakashi waved his hands in front of him, slightly panicked. Her face was deceptively innocent, but held the faintest smugness that he knew by now meant danger. "No! No, Sakura-chan! I couldn't even imagine a better comrade to assist!"

She snapped up straight and spun around, the ends of her hair almost hitting him in the face as she did so. "Thank you, Hokage-sama!" Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she passed Shikamaru on her way out the door. Shikamaru followed her to discuss more about her appointment and new position, a smirk on his face. This worked out better than he could have hoped for.

—

As he watched the two former classmates leave his office chatting and the ANBU commander take his leave through a window as he had come in, Kakashi's thoughts were tangled into a giant knot.

He had decided over the last couple days to step back from Sakura. It wasn't appropriate as a hokage to act upon any of the schemes that had slipped into his mind regarding coming between Sakura and Genma. He didn't even know what was going on between them! And here she was, practically volunteering for this job and throwing his decision to keep his distance out the window. It was frustrating beyond belief.

He was quite pleased though. He would get to be closer to her. Not to mention she was extremely capable, and someone he trusted completely. Even if she could be a little scary. But this would give him a new opportunity. He'd have to give this some careful thought as to how to proceed so as not to jeopardize her position and the work he wanted to do. He steepled his fingers under his nose to think.

—

An hour later, Sakura and Shikamaru had worked out her schedules for traveling, ANBU training, ANBU medic hours, research hours, and her salary. She had been esctatic at the last topic of conversation. Her ANBU salary was almost double her medic salary since the hours were going to be so much more demanding and the work more strenuous.

Part of her duties as Shikamaru had touched on earlier, was to perform medical exams and services on ANBU members as well as for the Hokage. As such she would be implementing a new set of health standards for ANBU ninjas including mental health evaluations. She had seen one too many ANBU collapsed on the floor of Tsunade's office when they had finally come to her for having exhausted themselves. As hokage, Tsunade had been able to bully her ANBU into taking care of themselves, easily able to recognize the signs of exhaustion and injury when they gave her reports. It wasn't that Kakashi didn't care, he just didn't have the medical expertise to recognize the more subtle signs.

Smiling and hugging Shikamaru as she stood up as their conversation finished, she said, "Okay. Well then I'm going to go clean out my office and pack my things. I'll come back in a few hours to do Kakashi-sama's medical exa-"

She stopped talking as a pair of ANBU appeared behind Shikamaru. Each was holding scrolls with ANBU seals. Shikamaru smiled and grabbed her medic bag from the floor where it had been left hours ago when she arrived.

"This is everything?" Shikamaru asked, glancing at the several scrolls before taking them to tuck into her bag for her.

"Hai, Shikamaru-sama!" the bear mask answered, inclining his head.

"Arigato," he turned back toward Sakura. "No need. Taichou-sama took care of it. I'm guessing Tsunade helped to sort through your things when he told her what was happening."

She took the bag from him, grinning that she wouldn't have to pack her office after just finishing with her house. "There's no time like the present then!" She turned toward the door and entered Kakashi's office without knocking. She wasn't going to give him a chance to slip away by announcing why she was there. Glancing around the room, she found she was too late. He must have taken off while she and Shikamaru were working out the schedules.

She sighed and walked over to his desk to leave a note that he couldn't avoid her forever, but stopped when she saw a note there already.

 _Blossom ~  
_ _Went to make dinner. Join me and you can do the exam there when we're done eating.  
_ _~K_

"Figures."

With that she turned and walked back out of the office, down the corridors and to the street.

 _He can't put this off much longer. But if that's where he's comfortable, fine._


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N~ Well hello all! It's been a boat-load of fun seeing the favorites & follows coming in as of late and the comments! It warms my heart that you're enjoying the story so far. I've got some fun things planned ahead, but this one is probably going to be a slow burn. I'm going to try to keep it interesting but I don't like to rush events and relationships.**

 **This particular chapter is fairly short for me but I felt like it did all it needed to & I hope you enjoy it.**

 **As always I love the feedback and appreciate any commentary you are willing to give! Happy reading!**

* * *

He was just wondering if she was going to come when he heard his front door open and close. He had been certain that she would want to take care of his medical exam after today's events. But he had started to wonder if the note on his desk would catch her attention or if she would have missed it.

He smiled under his mask, pleased with himself that he was still able to predict her actions to a point. He knew her very well once upon a time. This served to show that while she had grown the last couple years, she was still the Sakura he knew.

As she followed the quiet clinks of dishes and pots to the kitchen, Sakura was surprised at how good something smelled. She had never seen Kakashi truly cook before. The extent had been over a camp fire while on missions, and that didn't really count. Walking over to a stool at the counter top she settled in to watch as he flicked around the kitchen. She knew he was aware that she was there, despite neither of them having said anything.

She jumped a little when his flash-stepping resulted in a tall glass of iced tea with fresh raspberries appearing in front of her. She smiled as she took a sip. He remembered that was one of her favorites. She settled in, quietly sipping her tea as he stopped flitting around the kitchen to stand at the stove. There was a large pot with boiling liquid under it's lid there, but he was also grabbing a clean pan now for a variety of chopped veggies.

She watched as he tossed the veggies into the pan, along with a clear liquid that she assumed was water. She furrowed her brows as he made a few hand signs and muttered under his breath. A small burst of fire flew from his lips to the pan, which went up in beautiful blue-green flames.

"Sake?" she asked.

"Mhmm."

After a moment or two the flames went out, leaving nicely roasted veggies that he slid into the pot where she glimpsed some mushrooms rolling around in the boiling liquid. The aroma that was released when the lid came off the pot made her mouth water.

"I'm impressed, Kakashi-sama." She noted his eyes roll at the honorific.

"What happened to Kakashi- _kun_?" he asked slyly. Her face changed color to compliment her hair and he chuckled.

"I...I'm sorry about that," she stuttered, feeling her face heat at the thought of her state a few nights ago. "I got a little carried away with Ino that night."

"It's not a problem Sakura-chan." He was scooping rice into small bowls now. "I really didn't mind."

Her eyes widened slightly. Which part did he mean?

His back was to her, so she didn't see the confusion in his own eyes. In which way did she get carried away? Was it a good or a bad way? He pushed his doubts to the back of his mind and got out soup bowls. He was surprised to see a hand held out next to him, waiting for the bowls. He handed them to her and retrieved a ladel, pouring soup into each bowl while she held them. She walked gracefully back to the counter where she had been sitting setting one down for herself and the other at the seat next to her for him. He followed with the small bowls of rice.

They ate in silence for the most part, not sure what to say and just being comfortable in one another's company. The little chatter they did have centered around Sakura being impressed with the food.

"I'm proud of you, Sakura. You've grown into a fine woman, and an exceptional shinobi and medic," he said suddenly, breaking the silence of the last couple minutes.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," she whispered and lowered her eyes humbly.

"I don't say this as your Hokage, Sakura-chan. I say this as your friend. I'm looking forward to our trips together. Though I'm surprised you agreed to leave the hospital," he admitted.

She smiled up at him, meeting his gaze. "It has become more centered on operations and paperwork recently. Frankly I've been a little bored," she confessed. "I haven't been able to train much or even do much for research. This is a great opportunity for me on many fronts. And I certainly won't mind the travel. Or the company."

He smiled over at her and put his hand on top of hers briefly. They looked in one another's eyes for a moment before he stood to clear the empty dishes.

The moment broken, she let out a silent sigh and glanced around. Seeing her medical bag she walked over to it and pulled out a few items. Seeing what she was doing, Kakashi pouted and followed her to his living room like a scolded toddler when she caught his eye and crooked her finger at him.

He took a seat on the edge of a chair and crossed his arms. When she didn't move he looked up at her. She was watching him with an amused smirk. Probably entertained by his attitude.

"Your shirt please," she said turning to grab something out of the small pack she had brought with her. Turning back, she frowned slightly at the mask that was still over his neck and face. He gave her a bemused smile back, shrugging. "Oh all right, Kakashi-san."

He was surprised that she wasn't fighting with him over it like she normally did. He had never actually taken it off before in front of her, but she always tried to get him to concede to it, complaining that it was hard to palpate his neck, throat, and jaw through the thick material.

He watched as she put the earpieces of the stethescope in place and walked around behind him. He was steeling himself for the cold touch of it on his back when he found his mask ripped off straight over his head.

Shocked at how sneaky she was - and how quick she had become - he grabbed at the hand above his head that was holding the mask. Pulling her arm down over his shoulder, he saw a doctor's mask dangling from her fingers where his own mask should have been.

He smirked. She had thought this through. Taking the mask from her hand, he stood and walked to a mirror to put the mask on and make sure it covered his face well enough.

Satisfied, he looked back to see her with her eyes screwed tightly shut, smirking at the victory she knew she had won even if she didn't see it. He didn't see his mask anywhere, but walked back over to her.

Standing in front of her, he lightly lifted her chin with his finger, signalling it was safe for her to open her eyes.

Her smile dazzled him as their eyes met. She really was quite pleased with herself. He ruffled her hair before turning around to sit back down. He was surprised to have seen her not trying to see his face. It used to be a favorite game for her, Naruto, and Sasuke.

Sakura was indeed overly pleased with herself. She had been quite tempted to peek at him as well, but decided in the end to respect his privacy. It was obviously important to him.

Seeing him stiffen slighlty as he waited for the cold stethoscope, she smiled and held the cold end up to her palm, emitting a small glow of chakra. When she put the now warmed stethoscope to his back and listened to his heart beat for a minute or two, then commenced with asking him to take deep breaths. She liked to practice medicine without the use of her chakra from time to time in order to keep herself familiar with the basics. It had come in handy more than once when she started to run dangerously low on energy during her shifts.

Despite the warm stethoscope, Kakashi got chills up his spine. He was feeling oddly self conscious and aware of Sakura's presence. His skin burned wherever her hand rested. He simply closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on regulating his heart rate so as not to alarm her. This became significantly harder when he opened his eyes to find her at eye level with him.

"Are you okay? Are your eyes bothering you?"

He stared into her green orbs for a moment before answering. "Yes. No. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Never mind I'm just going to check anyway." Her eyes glittered, daring him to object.

He simply gave her a closed-eye smile and opened his eyes for her. He stared straight ahead at her as she placed a hand on either side of his head. He felt her chakra activate and sink into his temples and envelop his eyes. He watched as she slowly closed her eyes. As she concentrated she would occasionally raise an eyebrow for a moment.

After a few minutes, he felt the chakra recede and she opened her eyes.

—

She opened her eyes to find him staring intently at her. She fought back a blush. She was just checking his eyes. There was no reason to be uncomfortable. Well, except there wasn't a reason for her to be this close still. And she was only just managing to ignore his being shirtless.

Taking a deep breath, she removed her hands from his temples and straightened with a sigh. She needed to get this out of her mind. He was her hokage.

"They seem to be fine. But I can tell you're quite tired. Maybe you should get some rest Kakashi-san." She began packing up her things. When she straightened from her bag, she looked down at the ground, a little uneasy with where her thoughts had been going. "Thank you for dinner Kakashi-san. It was really nice."

She felt him ruffle her hair as he chuckled. "Any time, Blossom. You're welcome any time."

"Th-thank you. I'm really looking forward to working with you again," she walked toward the door, still not looking up.

"Me too. See you in the office tomorrow?"

"Mhmm," she hummed, opening the door. She was going to have to sort this out before they left on their first trip to the summit.

She heard the smirk in his voice as he wished her goodnight and closed the door behind her.

 _Well that was awkward, Sakura. Why don't you make it even clearer that you want to kiss him. Ayiiiiiiiiiii._


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N ~ Hiya boys and girls! Just a note that this chapter gets citrusy - there is fair warning when that happens and you won't really miss anything if you skip it. I've been having a great time reading your feedback. Please keep it coming!**

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Dropping off her medic bag and the various scrolls at her house, Sakura decided to go to her favorite bar. It wasn't the fanciest place, but it was a good spot to get a reasonably priced drink and relax, and she felt like she could use a drink. She needed to process today's events. It was a Wednesday night, so the bar wasn't very busy. She took a seat at the counter and ordered a bottle of sake to sip on.

Thinking about the events of the day, her new ANBU training that would start next week, and the new responsibilities she now had, she simply sat and sipped, absorbed in her own thoughts. She was a little nervous if she was honest with herself. ANBU. Being a member of the organization was no joke. Training would be hard as hell. She grinned at the thought of it. Once she had been weak. Scared of jumping in to help save her village, becoming a hinderance to her friends…which ironically was exactly what happened because of her hesitation. The war had changed that. She was strong now; both physically and mentally. She still had her fears, but she didn't let them control her or prevent her from taking necessary action.

Her temper had evened out a bit too. No longer being frustrated with herself constantly, she no longer had the short fuse she used to.

 _Well…at least not as short as it used to be…_ she thought to herself, grinning. She took the last sip of the small cup of sake, and before she could reach to fill her cup again from the small bottle, a hand reached out from next to her and poured it for her.

Surprised, she looked to her right to find Genma, senbon and all, setting her bottle back down. He turned to her as she smiled at him.

"I hear congratulations are in order," he smiled back at her.

"What? Oh! Yes, thank you! But…how did you know?" She had only gotten this job a couple hours ago. How on earth would he have known already?

"Shikamaru sent around a notification to a few of the elite jounin and ANBU to say you would be the main medic for us when it came to top secret missions and regular check-ups. Since it can be difficult to get in and out of the hospital quietly when one of us actually gets hurt, I'm surprised they haven't done this in so long.

"We used to have an ANBU medic years ago," he continued. "But they were killed on a mission, and not long after Tsunade-sama became hokage. So she just took care of it since we needed to report to her anyway. The last year or so while Kakashi-sama has been hokage we've needed to find her in the hospital, which doesn't exactly help us keep secret missions…well…secret as we bleed all over. Bit of a security risk."

He stirred his drink with his senbon before taking another swallow.

"Maybe I'll get to accompany you on a mission some time. I've never actually seen you fighting much, Genma-san."

He grinned at her, biting his senbon to keep it in his mouth while he did so. "It would be a pleasure to have you, Sakura-chan," he said winking at her.

She blushed fiercely as he winked, hearing a different meaning behind his words than he may have intended. _I really am ridiculous. Is this how I'm going to react to every man now? Maybe Ino was right to try to hook me up. Apparently I'm a mess of hormones._ Sakura finished the last of her sake at that thought, trying not to look flustered. It didn't work.

She stood up from her stool, placing some money on the counter to pay for her tab. "Well, Genma-san. I should really be going. I have a lot of work to do for tomorrow to get organized. It was very nice seeing you again!"

Genma quickly took the last sip of his own drink and followed suit. "Let me walk you home?" he asked quietly.

"O-Okay!" His voice was deep and low, and it made her stomach do a flip as his eyes met hers.

The walk didn't take long. The bar wasn't very far from her new place, a fact that she enjoyed. She didn't really need Genma to walk her home. It wasn't that late and she had only had one bottle of sake, and while she was feeling quite relaxed, she was certainly nowhere near drunk. Plus anyone that was dumb enough to accost her would get a very rude awakening. However, she liked being made to feel like a regular woman and not always like a kunoichi, and delighted in someone taking the trouble to chivalrously walk her home.

She was a little surprised that it was Genma, though. His actions lately were a slight departure from what she normally observed in him. As they stood on her front step, she couldn't help but remember just a few days ago as he had kissed her forehead; how his hand felt on the small of her back as he chivalrously guided her through her leaning towers of boxes. She hadn't needed his help, but it had been sweet nonetheless. Again, he was making her feel like a woman and not a ninja.

She paused in unlocking the door to look up at him. "Genma? Would you like to come in for a bit?"

"I would certainly like that, but are you sure? I don't want to keep you if you need to get things ready for tomorrow."

She simply grinned at him and opened the door, holding it open for him to come inside as well. Once they had settled in her living room with a small bottle of sake to split between them, they started talking. Genma told her about the mission he had just come back from this morning, while Sakura told him how much the hospital had been starting to get boring and how excited she was for this new work. She was also looking forward to going through the research scrolls more consistently now. Genma had actually delivered a few to her over the last couple years. It was a fairly common occurrence for a shinobi to swing by her office with a scroll that they happened to have encountered or received for her during their travels.

As Sakura leaned over to reach for the bottle to refill her cup, Genma's hand flew up to cup her cheek. She barely had time to register how quickly he had moved and yet how soft his touch was before it was wiped from her mind as he softly set a chaste kiss on her lips.

—

He pulled away after a moment with a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry. That was a bad idea. I'm not sure why I thought that was okay to do." His senbon appeared from somewhere with a flash and returned to its usual place. At a loss for words, Sakura cocked her head wondering where that had gone to.

Genma, on the other hand, blanched slightly at her silence. _I'm a dead man. Sakura is going to beat the shit out of me._

"I'm sorry. I should go," he said, finishing the thought in his mind, _before you punch me through your wall_. He stood from his spot on the couch and started walking toward her door to get his shoes.

Surprised, the pink head snapped back to the present from her internal war. As he was reaching for his shoe, he heard two fast footfalls and knew it was over. He was a dead man. He braced himself for impact just before his back was forced into the wall behind him.

He kept his eyes shut for a moment, waiting for the impact of her tiny, powerful fist. When nothing happened after a couple seconds, he opened his eyes. Seeing how close she was to him, he was confused. She stared up at him with a hesitant look and he raised a single eyebrow at her questioningly.

A sly smile spread on her face and she reached up, pulling the senbon from his mouth. With a flick of her wrist, she threw it, hitting the deadbolt and causing it to lock, the senbon bouncing off and lodging itself in the adjacent wall. It was his turn to be at a loss for words. This certainly wasn't what he expected. Unless she was just trying to cut off an escape route.

His frozen frame melted the next instant however, as Sakura pressed her body against his, going up on her tip toes to softly kiss him. Despite her recent actions she was shy now, hesitant to take the lead. Happy to encourage what was happening, his arms slipped around her, one tangling itself in her hair at the back of her head, the other to the small of her back to pull her closer to him.

Encouraged by his reciprocation, Sakura kissed back a little more fervently. Her hands were on his chest and she gripped his jounin vest now, pulling herself up a bit to meet him. He was just a smidge too tall at this angle, and she was sure he was also getting a crick in his neck as he bent to her.

He must have read her mind because he grunted, then pulled away from their kiss. Sakura furrowed her brows at him as she felt his hands leave her back and hair. She was giving him clear signals and by most reports Genma was a ladies' man. Not what she would call sleazy but certainly not one that anyone expected to settle down. He took his job as a ninja seriously, and with that came the very real possibility that he might not come back from a mission. He was not the only shinobi that was known to enjoy himself in what ways he could. She had heard it from a few women in the hot springs, none of which sounded much like jilted lovers…just women who were looking back fondly on their memories. Was he still going to leave?

Her question was answered in the next instant when she felt his hands grip her by the waist and pick her up off her feet. One hand glided down her hip to pull her leg up, while the other held her against him. Understanding now, Sakura wrapped her legs around his waist, feeling her stomach flip again as his hand grazed its way back up her waist, over her shoulder, and to her neck to pull her back into a kiss.

 ********If you're not a lemon/lime person, I'd suggest moving on to the next chapter. The rest is really just for those of us that enjoy a little citrus********

This time she felt his tongue graze her bottom lip, sending a clear question to her. She grinned against his lips and with her arms around his neck pulled him closer while meeting his tongue with hers. He shifted and the next moment she found herself pressed up against the wall as they battled for dominance. As his hands wrapped around her wrists she easily gave in, allowing him to take the lead in full.

Pulling her arms up above her head, he pinned them to the wall with one hand while the other sank to her waist. Her shirt was riding up slightly exposing a peek of her midriff. Sakura tightened her grip with her legs at his waist as his fingers started caressing her skin. She gasped at the feeling of his gentle touch and he took the opportunity to move his lips to her neck. A soft moan escaped her and she pulled against the firm grip he still had on her wrists, but he tightened his hold and held them where they were. She could break his hold in an instant if she wanted to, and she knew he was aware of that, but she submitted and left her wrists against the wall under his restraint.

As he nipped at her neck, she arched her back, pushing body into him, and noticed a hardness where she was pressed into his hips. Blushing, she heard him chuckle as he pulled away and bent to whisper in her ear. "We don't have to go any further than you want to Sakura. it's up to you. Don't worry about me."

His whispers sent shivers down her spine. She wondered if he knew he could do that. It was also unexpected from him to give her another opportunity to deny him after he had tried to leave before. In answer, she ground herself against his erection and softly moaned his name into his ear. Before she realized her wrists were free, his hands was groping at her butt and thigh, needing no more permission than what she had just given.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly as his lips met hers. Embracing the flurry of his touches as one hand moved to her waist while the other continued to squeeze her butt, she let her own hands wander his chest and arms, threading one into his hair to pull gently while the other continued exploring the tense muscles underneath her fingers.

After a couple minutes of their hands roaming one another's bodies, she could tell that true to his word Genma would not push her further than she wished to go. For a moment, she wondered if it was just his way or if it was because in an instant she could reject him with enough force that he would forget what pleasure was for a time. Deciding that if she did indeed want to take this further she would have to do so herself, she made her decision quickly.

Sakura unwrapped her legs from around his waist and slid down to touch the floor. The instant she started to separate herself from him, Genma had ceased his groping and helped to ease her down. He hadn't stopped kissing her, but it had certainly gentled as he held back the heat of the moment. He was much more a gentleman than she had expected, guessing that she had decided against going any further he seemed to be contenting himself with what they were doing now.

Sakura saw a dark gleam of surprise in his eyes when she grabbed his hand and gave him a seductive smile as she turned and led him toward the stairs. Looking back as she started up she saw his eyes tracing down her figure and settling on her ass. Looking forward again she smirked and rolled her hips more than usual as she climbed. She heard a sharp intake of breath from him and found herself swept off her feet from below and thrown over his shoulder. She let out a small yell as one hand groped her as the other wrapped around her thighs to secure her to him. She giggled as he threw her onto her bed in a whoosh of fluffy blankets. Apparently she had made it clear enough that he was okay to move to the next level.

As he crawled over her to slam his lips onto hers she grabbed at his vest and pulled the zipper down. Knowing what she wanted he shrugged off the vest and tore his long sleeve shirt over his head, losing the bandana wrapped around his hair in the process. Sakura surveyed him as he pulled his shirt off, not surprised when she saw the muscles across his chest and a well-defined six pack. He was always out on missions and training after all. Most shinobi would be of similar physiques, and it was certainly something she enjoyed when training with them or treating their wounds.

She bit her lip as she eyed him for a moment before glancing up at his face. He smirked down at her and leaned in for a quick kiss.

"No fair," he scolded as she felt him grip at the front of her button up shirt. "I'll make this up to you," he continued to her confusion. She gasped as all of a sudden he ripped her shirt open to reveal her flat stomach and lacy nude bra. Apparently his first comment was referring to the fact that he was shirtless and she wasn't. The second was for the shirt itself. _Thank Kami I grabbed the newer one this morning_ , she thought as she watched his eyes travel down her body hungrily. She quickly forgot her irritation at needing to sew buttons back on later as she watched his eyes wander.

Growing impatient as he stared down at her, tracing his finger down between her breasts and to her stomach, she acted. With a quick movement she flipped him to his back and sat on his hips. Feeling his bulge beneath her once more, she let her shirt fall from her shoulders, stopping when it reached her elbows as she braced herself against his chest. Grinding down into him she raised her face to the heavens and some of her long hair fell over her shoulder to cover her. He obviously didn't like having his view obstructed because he brushed it back before settling his hands on her hips and guiding her to match his own grinding rhythm.

As he grabbed at her pointless shirt and threw it to the side Sakura decided she had had enough of this teasing. She rolled away before he could grab her and stood at the edge of the bed. Her eyes told him to stay where he was and she slowly unbuttoned her pants and pushed them down over her hips. Her panties didn't match her bra, but that didn't matter. They were cute - and they wouldn't be on much longer anyway.

He was leaning back on his elbows watching her with great interest, but glared at her as she slowly turned around to face away from him. She giggled at the dissatisfaction on his face as she turned her body, watching him over her shoulder. The look only intensified as she reached up her back to unhook her bra. She threw the garment over her shoulder at him and it landed on his chest and slid down to rest on his abs. His breath caught as she slid her fingers down her own waist and hips, under the band of her simple maroon thong. She bent slowly and rolled her hips as she slid the garment down bit by bit, until it fell to the floor as well.

She was just thinking she was surprised he was still laying back and watching when she felt his bare chest against her back and his arms snake around her to clutch her waist and one breast. His lips attacked the curve between her neck and her shoulder and she let out a moan. He spun her around and pressed her to him, craning his neck down to kiss her again. As his tongue darted around inside of her mouth she put a little distance in between their hips, unbuttoning his pants.

"No fair," she breathed at him, breaking their kiss. He grinned against her cheek as he recognized his own words being sent back to him. With that, she pushed down his boxers and pants at the same time, crouching in front of his cock as he exhaled.

With one hand, she reached up and scraped her nails across his abs, while the other hand rested on his hip. Looking up directly into his eyes, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. He stared at her as she licked from the base of his shaft to his tip, then started kissing and licking the head. She kept eye contact with him the whole time, hungry for his reaction.

Genma seized her hand that rested on his hip and brought it to the base of his shaft. With the other hand he grabbed a fistful of her hair and made her tilt her head further back to look at him. She grinned before looking to what was in front of her and taking him in her mouth as far as she could. She felt his grip tighten in her hair as she bobbed her head back and forth, and he let out a long moan.

Grabbing another fistful of her hair with his other hand to still her movements, he gently bucked his hips into her as she hummed in pleasure. She felt warmth moving slowly down her inner thighs as she listened to the moans and grunts above her as he controlled their pace and depth.

She felt his hands releasing her hair and then pulling her up to stand with him for a moment to bite at her lips and neck before he eased her back onto the bed on her back. Straddling her legs between his, he trailed his kisses further down before taking one pert pink nipple into his mouth. Rolling his tongue around it he listened to the almost musical moans escaping her. He nibbled slightly as a hand slipped down between her legs to explore the wetness there. What started as a gasp at the tender bite turned into a mewling noise as she felt his fingers slip in and then back out of her. She was like an instrument that played the most beautiful melody as he touched her. If she was the instrument, he would be a musician any day.

Sakura opened her eyes and looked up at him when his hand left her, only to see him put a wet finger into his mouth while he stared into her eyes. She blushed and felt her insides clench slightly before an idea struck her. Pulling his finger away, she bit at his bottom lip before, locking eyes with him again, she wrapped her lips around the same finger to taste herself. His eyes widened before the smirk turned into a full grin.

"You're not nearly as innocent as you look, are you Sakura-chan?"

"You of all people should know that looks can be deceiving, Genma- _san_." She saw his smirk return as she teased him with the honorific. Deciding to show him how innocent she wasn't, she used a small burst of her chakra to reverse their positions again so she was on top of him.

He grinned up at her as he surveyed the pinkette's body. He hadn't planned on doing more than walking her home when they left the bar, but who was he to refuse a lady? He had no doubts this was about scratching an itch and nothing more, but he was nothing if not happy to help a damsel in distress.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N ~ For those of you that skipped the citrusy content, this chapter starts from a cleaner place for you. For those that didn't skip it, I hope you enjoyed the bit; feel free to PM me suggestions for any future lemons. I'm not afraid to say I enjoy some raunchy content now and then and will certainly be throwing it in from time to time.**

* * *

Sakura woke the next day as the first rays of sunlight peaked out were peeking out over the horizon, giving her room a soft morning glow. Genma was still there. Not what she had expected, but that was fine.

Sighing to herself, she stretched and got up to shower. She hadn't ben told specifically what time to go in for, but figured she might as well get ready.

Stepping from the steamy bathroom several minutes later and wrapped in a fluffy lilac towel, she found Genma leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom. He smiled at her as she finished toweling the excess moisture from her hair. She paused and reached into the linen closet next to her, offering him a dry towel of his own. He took it, thanking her with a playful pinch to her rear as she passed.

As she heard the water turn back on, she went off to her closet to find some clothes suitable for the day. Not knowing what was going on, she wanted to be sure she looked appropriate for whomever might be visiting the Hokage's office today. She settled on a deep green skirt that went well with her eyes. It was floor length and fairly fitted with a high waist, and was her favorite for days when she wasn't certain if she would be required to be more active than she planned. This was mainly due to two hidden zippers on the sides that went all the way up to her hips. Ino had one, though she never really wore it zipped much, which is how Sakura had found out about it. She had promptly bought a couple for herself in various colors, though unlike Ino she usually wore her black kunoichi shorts if she thought she might have a reason to fight. She didn't mind showing a little skin from time to time, but Ino really was quite a bit more daring than she.

Grabbing a plain cream blouse she changed, zipping closed the sides of her skirt down to just passed her knees. She had found that just the small slits up each side of her lower legs were ideal to allow her to move reasonably well. She tucked the bottom of her blouse into the skirt and admired herself in the mirror. It was a good look for her, especially with the light color on top to give her the illusion of a slightly fuller figure than she had. Grabbing one of the matching pairs of 'Tsunade heels' her mentor had gifted her when she had received her last promotion, she padded downstairs.

When Genma came downstairs a few minutes later Sakura was just pouring two cups of tea into disposable travel cups for them both.

"So…" Genma started, obviously feeling a little awkward at the sight of her pouring him tea.

"It's fine, Genma," she smiled at him reassuringly. "Thank you for last night. I had a really great time."

He returned her smile, glad that he had been correct that she understood he wasn't one to settle down. He had been fairly certain last night she knew that, but when between staying the night with her and finding her making him tea, it had sparked his concern a bit.

"Any time, Sakura-chan," he winked.

"I'll keep that in mind," she smirked. While she liked Genma, she really didn't want people talking about any scandalous behavior by her, regardless of if it was true or not. Plus if her boys found out, Naruto and Sasuke in particular might well turn to some harsh interrogation tactics. They didn't work together much any more, and their dynamics had certainly changed, but she was still "their Sakura", and while Sasuke in particular hadn't been the "one" for her, she had heard reports that he was vastly overprotective of her, more than happy to punch first, ask questions (maybe) later. Sakura was sure he was trying to make up for what he had put her through and not being able to rebuild their trust on that level by making sure nobody else did that to her now.

Hopefully neither of the hotheads would hear about Genma for his own safety. She didn't rule out the possibility of a repeat night sometime though; he knew how they were and should be able to take care of himself. But for now she had scratched an itch that had crept up on her. Hopefully her mind wouldn't continue to go into the gutter throughout her day as it had last night.

—

Genma stepped close to her and kissed her forehead as he tucked some of her hair behind her ear. He may be a flirt with every woman, but he didn't want to make her feel cheap. He liked Sakura. She was a beautiful, intelligent woman, a killer kunoichi, and had patched him up more than a few times, which was why he wouldn't have done anything last night if she hadn't literally pounced on him as he was leaving. He had kissed her, true, but that was the sake getting the better of his self control.

Besides all that, she was special in her own right. If he was the kind to settle down or be tempted by such, Sakura would be a severe temptation. She may not know it, but she was a woman that was coveted throughout the village. Eyes followed her everywhere she went. She seemed to underestimate how attractive she was. Her hair drew attention easily, but it was her eyes and how she held herself that captured it and kept men (and a few women) aware of her at all times. She was strong in will and brute strength, was known throughout the shinobi world for her medical prowess, had four of the strongest shinobi alive today among her closest friends, and she wore her heart on her sleeve. Some thought she had a short temper, but those that had known or worked with her long enough knew it to be her straightforward nature. She didn't hold back anything, which was rare for a shinobi, and while generally frowned upon, she pulled it off and was the more powerful for it in every way.

All this combined to make most men hesitant to approach her without her having shown some interest, which when she was as busy as she typically was, she didn't normally get out to have that opportunity. That and her former teammates Naruto and Sasuke had expressed more than a small handful of times that anyone who hurt her would answer to them. Naruto was happily with the Hyuuga girl, but had once been head over heels for the pinkette. Everyone knew however, that Sakura had trailed after Sasuke for years, even after he left the village. Once he came back after the war, they had been seen together for a couple months, but then it had just stopped. He had never asked about what happened, but he hadn't really cared either. Sasuke was an arrogant ass. Served him right that now he pined after her, though Genma doubted that Sakura actually knew that it was anything beyond the protectiveness that Naruto showed. Point being, those two boys caused anyone who had less than honorable intentions with Sakura to think twice. And anyone that did make it passed them had to be willing to have a "conversation" with Tsunade.

He wasn't _afraid_ , per se, of the three, but that was why he had let Sakura take the lead last night…he certainly didn't want any of them breathing down his neck if he pushed her farther than she had meant to go. Thus, as he put on his shoes, he scanned for any chakra outside to indicate if he might encounter anyone that would spread rumors that would potentially reach the ears of Sakura's protectors. Not sensing anyone, he didn't fidget with the shoes as he had been ready to do, and followed her outside. Genma held her tea while she locked the door and picked her medic bag back up in one hand. Returning her tea to her, they simply smiled and wished one another a good day. Genma walked off toward his apartment in the main area of town, while Sakura started to walk toward the Hokage's office.

—

Kakashi kicked a stone down the path on his way to the office. He was lost in thought about what today might include. Sakura was starting work today. Would he get to see her? His first trip wasn't for another four weeks or so. He hoped to get to spend time with her before then. As he was silently scheming the various ways he could make excuses to do so, a bug seemed to wheedle its way into his hair. He slapped at the spot and ran his hand through quickly to make sure it was gone. Not feeling it any longer he kept walking. A moment later it was tickling behind his ear. He slapped at the area again, only to feel it on the back of his neck. He slapped again.

What was with these bugs today? They didn't normally bother him much; they normally read his typical "screw off" aura at this point in the morning.

He realized perhaps they weren't actually bugs bothering him when he heard a feminine giggle, that quickly turned into a snort when it became obvious that she hadn't mean to give herself away yet but had done so.

He turned with his eyebrows raised to see Sakura practically bent over holding her stomach with one arm, balancing a cup around the handle of her bag in the other, as she gave up with fighting it and laughed uproariously. He waited for her giggles to subside for a moment. She could practically hear his eyes roll as she gathered herself and started walking with him toward Hokage Tower, but she saw the corner of his eye twitch good-naturedly. She grabbed the end of a lock of her hair and tickled at his neck again. That explained what the bugs were.

"You seem to be in a good mood today, Sakura-chan."

"What can I say? I'm excited. And I'm really looking forward to working with you out in the field again, Kakashi-san."

"Well, I wouldn't necessarily call it field work. More like paperwork and droning conversations until you go blind and your ears bleed. Its painful."

She snickered in response. "Good thing I'm a medic then! I'll fix you up right as rain so you don't have to miss a moment!" She practically cackled as he groaned and put his hands over his face. He hadn't thought about that. He was so distracted by thoughts of never-ending meetings and needing to figure out how to trick the best medic he knew into getting him out of meetings that it took him a moment to notice her loop her arm into his and pull it down to his side. She patted his forearm with the same hand whose arm looped through his while she sipped from her tea held in the other.

"Don't worry, Kakashi-san. I'll help you make it through all the niceties. That's part of why I'm going, isn't it? To help you represent the village."

His mood swung back upwards and he carefully took her bag from her so she could sip what smelled like tea unhindered. He hadn't been thinking about how much pressure that would take off of him to interact with the other dignitaries. Maybe he could even skive off after an hour or so to leave her there to mingle. She was better at it anyway. He might even end up with more free time on some of his trips than he would have here! This was starting to look like an even better arrangement than he possibly could have hoped for. Plus she wasn't lazy like Shikamaru…maybe he could convince her to help him with paperwork. He always had a sneaking suspicion that it hadn't been Tsunade who had assigned him the majority of missions in her last few months as Hokage. He had heard about a few missions where he had been specifically requested for a noble escort that had somehow been delayed in its assignment; when it was finally found, he was normally on another mission that should have been assigned after the escort. He'd have to talk to her and see if he had her to thank for the lack of obnoxious nobles in his life before becoming Hokage.

Kakashi quietly played the role of chivalrous escort to the beautiful pinkette all the way up to his office. She was likely going to spend most of the day with Shikamaru going over travel plans and procedures. She was also going to be getting a run down of his latest habits of sneaking off, he was sure. Kakashi wasn't anywhere near niave enough to think that his usual tricks were going to work on her. He still had a few secrets up his sleeve, but he would have to use them cautiously, only when he really needed to collect his sanity before he started seeing how small of a chidori he could make...like that time with the diamyo's finance minister. Thankfully that man was an imbecile and didn't realize that those weren't static electricity shocks he kept getting as he touched things; they were symptoms of Kakashi's boredom in a six hour long ramble by the minister. Then again, maybe if the man wasn't such a droning imbecile the silver-haired Hokage wouldn't have needed to entertain himself.

That was a lie.

He probably would have done it anyway. Finances were the bane of his existence. That's why he had always been so cheap. Finances were much easier to manage if you didn't spend anything. That and it was amusing.

As he and the bubbly woman approached his office, Kakashi noticed Shikamaru wasn't at his desk, which was odd. Normally the man was waiting to usher him to a meeting that he was already late for. He was starting to think he should disappear to go gambling today with the luck he was having.

"Shikamaru is probably off getting some scrolls to beat me into submission with before making me sign them. Would you like to come in for a few minutes while you wait for him?"

"My poor dear Hokage-sama!" Sakura feigned in shock and concern with a hand over her heart. "I won't let him hurt you any more!" She put her hands on his cheeks and glared around the room as if looking for the pineapple haired man. "The mean Nara boy will have to get through me first!"

He sighed and deadpanned at the overacting and drama he had caused then proceeded to walk into his office with her in his wake, while she was giggling again.

Upon entering his office, Kakashi headed to to the new desk in the corner that Shikamaru had already put together for Sakura, depositing her bag for her. The desk had a pile of scrolls on it already, most of them sealed only for her by the looks of it. She followed his silent directive and started in on her inbox. Proceeding to his own desk, Kakashi found a small scroll sitting open.

 _Hokage-sama,_

 _I've taken the liberty of managing your meetings this morning with Naruto. It's good practice for both of us for after the summit while you're gone._

 _In the mean time, take Sakura through the plans of the summit and your travels following instead. Since you haven't told me all of your plans for the trips, I need you to tell SOMEONE. And since she will be with you, she's going to find out anyway, so tell her now._

 _Please and thank you,_

 _Nara Shikamaru_

 _P.S. I left a scroll for her telling her the same on her desk that she's probably already read, so don't try to get out of this for another "meeting"._

"He knows you well it seems," Sakura giggled as she looked up to see the silver-head eyeing the nearby window as if he was considering making a dash for it. Further unrolling the scroll that presumably held the missive from a soon-to-be ex-assistant, she proceeded over to his desk to grab a pen.

Glancing around, she noted that there were no extra chairs in this room apart from that behind her desk in the corner. Deciding it was too far away to bother, she sighed and sat on the corner of the desk she knew so well from her shishou's time in office. She'd sat there many times before for similar reasons when helping Tsunade. Poising her pen over a blank stretch of the scroll, she gazed at him expectantly.

Sighing, Kakashi started in on the general outline of the summit, followed by the travel plans to individual villages. Sakura took sparing notes that he guessed had more to do with her thoughts on what she could contribute to each leg of the journey than to what the dates and so forth were. He knew she had a memory like a steel trap and wouldn't need the schedule repeated for her.

Roughly two hours later, he heard Sakura's stomach growl from her perch next to him. He hadn't noticed his own hunger until that moment. He'd been too focused on avoiding the slash of thigh from the leg she had crossed over the other in order to support the scroll slightly while she wrote. He would have to get the chairs back in here. The couple extra he normally had must have been grabbed by mistake after the jounin meeting the day prior. The genin in charge of cleaning up didn't seem to want to be present that late in the day and likely rushed to get the job done.

As he was about to suggest a lunch break for the pair of them, a hesitant knock sounded at the open door. It seemed Shikamaru had anticipated their need and set a genin to delivering lunch for the pair. Lunch consisted of miso and some sashimi, a light enough lunch to keep them from becoming tired after eating, but enough to provide them with energy. Kakashi was pleased with his assistant; maybe he wouldn't fire him today after all. Not that he ever actually would. Shikamaru was the only reason Kakashi was even remotely sane. He certainly did delight in making Shikamaru pull his hair out looking for him though. Maybe he wouldn't hide for the next meeting with the elders. Well…maybe not as long as normal, anyway.

—

At the end of the rather detailed account of the plans Kakashi had to come, Sakura stretched and slipped off the desk. She had gotten up a few times to walk around or stand while using the desk as her writing surface (much to Kakashi's annoyance as this left her in poses that brought Icha Icha scenes to his mind), but for the majority of the day she had sat on that same corner of his desk while he signed scroll after scroll while explaining his plans to her. She doubted he knew what half of them had said, but at the same time, he _was_ Kakashi. She had seen him reading as he did nearly everything when he had been her sensei, so maybe he did know what he had worked on.

Overall, she liked his plans and found them to be quite well thought out, with great merit as to the outcomes. Only the latter had surprised her. She knew whatever he was thinking would be well thought out - he was likely trying to shirk his boring duties as Hokage, after all - but they also had real purpose behind them and a legitimate one at that. She surmised he may even have had the purpose first, and had seen it as an opportunity to get out of the tower as an added bonus instead of the other way around.

She had laughed when he had told her the plan the ANBU captain had put forth to saddle him with two dozen ANBU members, including some of the tracker division, for the post-summit travels. She had helped with the transition between Tsunade and Kakashi for a couple of weeks and remembered one particular event when Kakashi had insisted on only two ANBU guards and had been ignored. It had resulted in four ANBU members incapacitated for several hours and two more tied and hanging from the hair spikes of the yondaime's monument. The whole performance had taken less time than it had taken Sakura to walk to the hospital and back with a stack of her scrolls, which was really only a couple blocks away.

Kakashi had then been missing for a day and a half. Then he had reappeared as if he hadn't even been gone, which had made Tsunade so furious she had stolen a kunai from Sakura's pouch and thrown it straight at Kakashi's foot. It had of course missed since Kakashi was still faster than even her shishou could be with her chakra-enhanced running, but Tsunade had aimed for his feet for several days following, all at seemingly random times, in an effort to make it harder for the Copy Nin to "run away from his work". It certainly wasn't a relaxing week with having to watch Tsunade like a hawk for projectiles, but Kakashi had gotten his point across to his security team.

Since then, Sakura had only ever noticed two chakra signatures lingering outside the office, usually outside of the actual building. From what she understood, they also were not to come within 200 feet of his home unless strictly necessary either. It was a distance that was close enough for them to be there the instant they were needed, should that ever happen, but also far enough away where Kakashi and his freakishly good sense of smell and hearing wouldn't detect them unless the wind was just right. She imagined this gave him a relative sense of privacy within his own home.

"Well, Kakashi-sama," she sighed, reaching back to press on a spot in her lower back that was a little too tight from her perch on the desk, "I think this will work well. But I'd like to make a couple of alterations, if I may."

He quirked an eyebrow at her, wordlessly welcoming her input. But if she tried to shorten their trip like the commander he had no doubt that she would be unsuccessful. Afterall, short of her man-handling him, he would do what he planned, and while he thought she could give him a run for his money, her respect for his office would likely trump any such ideas she had.

"I'd like to add a couple of clinic days between the major stops. To check on the health conditions of those outside the major areas. The war started because we forgot about our duty to the humanity. I'd like to take the opportunity to do our part while we're already out."

Kakashi was genuinely surprised at that. He had expected Sakura to be of a similar mind to Shikamaru in allowing Kakashi to follow through with his plans, but only enough as was actually absolutely necessary. Here she was doing the exact opposite.

Sakura noticed the surprise in his eyes that most would not have seen. "Kakashi-sama?" she asked hesitantly. It was hard to surprise the Copy Nin.

"I had forgotten just how big your heart could be, Sakura-chan."


	9. Chapter 9

Roughly three weeks later, Sakura collapsed onto the ground with a huff, sending some small bits of dust into the air around her. The grass was soft and a lovely green now that they were into the early summer. The sunset over the trees was breathtaking, but that was not what had taken hers from her.

She had spent the last 36 hours completing an ANBU survival exercise as part of her training. She was an elite ninja, but that didn't mean she wasn't exhausted beyond belief now. She had been training with her fellow ANBU for for most of those three weeks. Some of the time certainly had been fluffy administrative work that she would be assisting Kakashi with during their travels, but most of that came easily to her, having helped Tsunade for years.

She had also spent time going through the equivalent of administrative duties for ANBU, though that was far from being 'fluffy'. There were a number of protocols she had to familiarize herself with, several of which had to be worked out specifically for her, her position, and her abilities. After all the protocol had been covered, she had received her ANBU tattoo, though part of her protocol dictated that she hide it with a henge when in public.

This was because unlike a regular ANBU, she would not (typically) be hiding her face behind a mask while in service. She had certainly received a mask, and would use it from time to time, but her role was to be undercover, in a sense. She was too well known and her actual presence would be too beneficial to disregard it and hide her behind a mask. What with her medical skills, her notoriety, and her friendly relationships with so many ninja from the last war, she was an asset. So she would appear to be just herself, serving as a medic, ambassador, and assistant in addition to her duties as Kakashi's guard and keeper. You know…nothing too much. Should she ever need to put on her mask, she would need to put a henge on her hair as well, or at the very least use a temporary dye; that decision was left up to her. Her own hair was just too distinctive, and she liked it that way.

The training she had just completed, however, was her final test before getting the official OK to move forward with the trip. It had consisted of tirelessly fending off mock assassinations by individuals as well as small teams. Even if they were only training exercises, her opponents had come at her with intent to kill, as was typical of that level of ninja. For a day and a half, she had to survive with no more than her pouch normally contained. It was a test designed to catch new recruits off-guard, and was usually sprung on them mid-day without warning. It's purpose was to simulate a situation in which they had not particularly prepared for attack. Having an upper-hand by knowing roughly what a mission was going to require of an operative was one thing; being able to hold your own for hours on end in the Forest of Death without warning was an entirely different ball of wax.

Throughout the exercise she had to guard Kakashi's clone who was incapacitated for several hours with a sedative, a feature of the test designed to inhibit her actions and burden her more-so than simply defending herself. She wasn't there to keep herself alive, after all. Her purpose was ultimately to protect her hokage. As time wore on, he became more responsive and she was able to dissipate the sedative, but the chakra Kakashi had put into his clone was quite limited in order to simulate a severe injury that he needed time to recover from. All-in-all, it was quite a challenging test, but she had passed it, only needing to dip into her chakra reserves by about 35% during that time, which she was quite pleased with considering she had no support, and really that was partially due to the fact that she had stopped to heal a couple of her mock-enemies on occasion when they underestimated her skills and were too severly injured for her to leave them in good conscience. They were Konoha nin after all, even if they had been stupid.

It was something that happened constantly, and Sakura had a love-hate relationship with the concept. On the one hand, she hated that her comrades and fellow Konoha shinobi wrote her off and underestimated her abilities. On the other hand, it frequently gave her an upper-hand in a legitimate battle, even if only for the first couple of attacks. The reasons for being underestimated varied, but were typically one of a few things: the ridiculous color of her hair (what self-respecting ninja would have such a blatant give-away of a color and not dye it?), that she was first known as a medic, she wore her heart on her sleeve (generally a no-no for a shinobi), she was the godaime's apprentice and surrogate daughter (so obviously her position was a result of that and not due to her own skills), or simply that she was a woman.

She was pleased however, to hear the ANBU commander berating those she had needed to stop to heal as she lay on the ground trying not to fall asleep while she waited for her own performance review. The commander seemed to be insisting that perhaps those who had so grossly underestimated her, a well-known shinobi of their own village, were not ANBU material themselves if they would underestimate someone simply because of her appearance. Sakura had an inkling that those particular shinobi were of the faction that believed she had only made it to her current status due to her relationship with her shishou, as well as her one-time sensei.

Trying not to smirk as she lay there listening, she focused on anything but the gnawing hunger in her gut. It was past time for dinner now, and she hadn't eaten more than a couple of food pills that she had been keeping in her pouch since her test had started. She always kept some with her; being the highest skilled medic in Konohagakure meant she was frequently pulled away from what she had planned on doing. It had happened so many times when normal people would take time to eat a meal that she simply kept a few with her at all times. To be realistic, she had also given the Copy-Kakashi some, as if he was real she would have. Ultimately, however, food pills didn't satiate you; they simply gave you the fuel you need to keep going and to recover chakra.

An hour later, Sakura was departing the ANBU training field where they had convened after her test. The commander had of course not under-estimated her. She had been around him for years with Tsunade and knew her to be more than capable. The test was really just a formality. She had the feeling he was glad some of his ANBU had been of the group that thought her success was a product of who she knew; it taught them a lesson early on about her. Perhaps he had chosen those few on purpose? She had an inkling of who he was behind the mask, but had never been able to confirm it. Those eyes were just too damn sly and calculating for her not to notice them, however.

Brushing aside her curiosity, she trudged toward home. She was pleased with herself and her performance. Her time as a medic hadn't made her stamina suffer; if anything it had increased it. The last couple of weeks of training had helped her to work through some of the rustiness in her battle skills, and overall, she had received what equated to great praise from the ANBU commander. He did of course offer constructive criticism and bade her to improve her gengutsu. She was proficient at disspelling gengutsu, but he knew she could be quite a bit better at employing it in battle herself if she worked on her skills.

The weary kunoichi thought briefly about stopping for some take-out somewhere, but knew she wouldn't be able to walk passed her home to get to the business district for it, and there was nothing on the way. Thank goodness for the stash of instant ramen she kept on hand for Naruto. It wasn't her favorite, but it would do tonight.

She rounded the corner of her home to approach her front door, not bothering to really pay attention to where she was going. As a result she walked right into a pair of feet dangling from the small roof over her front door. She stared for a moment before looking up at the owner of the feet.

"Yo."

Kakashi held up a hand in his customary greeting and slid down to land in front of her, eyes crinkling in his usual way.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura readied herself for whatever it was that he had come to her for. Was there a patient? Did he want to talk about their trip plans? She really didn't have much left in her, but if her hokage needed her…

"Kakashi-sama," she said with a slightly forced smile, "how can I help?"

He held up a large bag of take-out that she hadn't noticed. "Hungry?"

Her smile reached her eyes now, and she stepped forward to hug the silverhead. He stiffened for a split second before patting her on the back. Pulling back, he stepped to the side so she could unlock her door and followed her inside at her gesture.

"It took you a while to get here. Everything okay?"

Belatedly, Sakura realized that Kakashi would have known exactly what had been going on for the last 36 hours once his clone had been dismissed. And he had been waiting for her. Her heart warmed at how sweet the gesture was for him to anticipate her hunger and lack of energy to get or make something herself. She hadn't really seen him since her first day when they had talked about their travel plans and in passing a couple other times.

Smiling wider than before, she nodded. "Everything is fine. I had to wait for Taichou-sama. He needed to…discuss a few things with some others before my performance review."

Kakashi chuckled knowingly. He had not been allowed to assist her during the test, but that didn't mean he wasn't paying attention. He had noticed the way in which a few of the other ANBU had treated her. Underestimating her and acting like children taking an opportunity to show up someone whose parents had bought their way into power for them. His clone had practically giggled when she wiped that notion from their ridiculous minds. Not only had she thoroughly wiped the forest floor with them, she had then healed them of her own accord, though by ANBU rules if they had happened to die during her test it would only have been their own fault. Talk about adding insult to injury.

"Take a seat, Sakura-chan. I'll make some tea, shall I?"

She thanked him and plopped on the couch in her living room, thinking for a moment that she should go change, but deciding after a moment she didn't care enough. He set down the bag of take-out on the small table in front of her a skewer of grilled squid to snack on. Grinning, she took a bite of the still warm meat and didn't even mind when he ruffled her hair before walking away.

A few minutes later he returned carrying the teapot and two of the cups he had gifted her several weeks ago.

"I thought we should officially break this in," he said as he set it down in front of them as he sat down next to her.

She had thanked him several times during her first day for the beautiful and thoughtful gift, and had assured him that she would wait to use it until she was first able to do so with him. He had waved her appreciation off several times, but had finally engaged her when she had suggested such. This was the first time they had really been able to do more than say hello in passing since then.

Unpacking the bag of food he had brought, Sakura giggled at the number of containers.

"I didn't know what you would want. So I got all of your favorites!" he fixed her with a his characteristic smile.

They each grabbed a pair of chopsticks and said thank you for the food before digging in. As they passed food back and forth, they discussed her test over the last day and a half. Kakashi was thoroughly impressed with her performance, though not surprised. She had long ago proved herself to be exceptional. Nevertheless, he listened to her reiterate the commander's praises, and when she mentioned his suggestion that she strengthen her genjustu, he offered to teach her while they traveled.

"Oh! Kakashi-san! Would you? I had thought to ask you but didn't want to burden you!"

"Nonsense," he nudged her with his elbow. "You've managed to extend our trip by a month with your arguments to serve the people. That's an extra month without the prattling of the council. And we should have plenty of time between villages."

From there the conversation turned to their travels that would commence in just a couple weeks. There would be two other ANBU traveling with them after the kage summit in Kumogakure (Lightning Country). Two had been all he could talk Shikamaru and the Commander down to. He had argued that he technically already had two ANBU guards with Sakura, but had needed to concede that Sakura would likely be away from him at times and shouldn't be counted as a full-time guard.

Their small group would be staying in Kumogakure for a few days after the summit for the secondary purposes, then traveling to the Mist, back through Lightning to the Stone, then to the Wind. In between they would be making stops in several of the smaller lands that were situated between the larger countries.

As they talked about the summit and some of the topics that needed to be covered, Kakashi noticed Sakura's voice getting quieter and quieter until she finally seemed to have reached her limit and slumped against his shoulder asleep. Smiling to himself he snuck his arm around her and leaned his cheek against her head gently. She was exhausted. He should have left a while ago, but now he just felt bad at the thought of disturbing her. Yes. That's why he didn't get up now.

Thinking he would just let her rest for a while before he woke her, he relaxed a bit. Truth be told he was tired too. Hosting a clone for so long was draining. Even more so when the clone had dismissed and the experience had melded with his own. He hadn't had much of a chance to mull over the full experience before she had made it home. He had been too preoccupied with recognizing her hunger as they had finished the mission and deciding to do something about it.

What he had taken a moment to think about however was his clone's preoccupation with the derriere that had been the first thing he had seen upon waking from the sedative. She had slung him over her shoulder in his unconscious state while fleeing in search of a more defensible position. It had been quite a mesmerizing sight as he drifted in and out of the sedative's haze. He smiled to himself as he ran over that particular sight again in his mind. He couldn't help what he saw at that time…he was sedated and she had put him there. At least that what he told himself.

Some time later, he noticed his shirt pulling against his neck in an uncomfortable fashion. He rolled his shoulder a bit and the weight against his other shoulder shifted a bit and something warm slid down his chest to his waist. He vaguely wondered what that was until he heard a "Kakashi-kuunnn" mumbled into his neck.

His eyes shot open and he stiffened slightly before relaxing again. He had fallen asleep. And at some point Sakura had snuggled into him from the side. Her grip on the front of his shirt must have been causing it to pull against his neck. That hand had fallen at his motion and was now grazing his waist as he breathed in and out.

He wasn't complaining, but this wasn't exactly what he had in mind. The clock on the wall indicated only an hour or so had passed since they had each fallen asleep and for that he was thankful. An hour was a reasonable amount of time to have passed without waking her, and not too long to make her think he had been thinking of anything inappropriate or had fallen asleep himself. Regardless of if the latter was true or not.

He took a final moment to ready himself to wake her, noticing how her hair smelled like the forest, a campfire, slightly of the brief rain they had had, and well, Sakura. She had been out there for over a day after all, and had guarded his incapacitated clone for hours without rest. She didn't have an unpleasant smell, it was just her scent. He doubted he would have been able to distinguish it as uniquely hers without his similarly unique sense of smell, but he had known it for years. She put on some perfumed scents from time to time, but when they were on missions or back in the war, her current scent was what he was familiar with. She reminded him of herbs and ink, with a slight sweetness tracing through it all. When she wasn't as depleted in chakra as she was now the herbs and sweetness was stronger; the ink was likely only residual from the notes she was always making on her patients or research, or the book she was reading. She practically always had her nose stuck in something.

Taking a deep breath, he softly rubbed her back and said her name. He had to repeat her name a few times more before her eyes flickered open and she realized what was going on. She said up away from him slowly and he thought she might have blushed if she wasn't so obviously tired. Getting up, he tucked her hair behind her ear before turning to gather up what was left from their dinner. She followed him with the remnants of the tea, looking like she was still mostly asleep. Tucking the few leftovers back into her fridge, he took the tea from her hands and quickly washed what the cups and pot before ushering her out of the kitchen toward her stairs.

Much to his surprise, as he straightened from putting on his shoes he found her leaning in to hug him firmly. She hadn't said anything since waking a couple short minutes ago, and said nothing now, but the hug said more than enough for her. They were both tired and happy with the events of the last two days. After a minute she released him and he let himself out the front door, hearing the lock click as he turned away. He hoped she would be able to make it up the stairs this evening on her own. Smiling at the thought and the memory that brought up, he walked home, listening to the sounds in the distance of the patrons visiting bars and restaurants, hands in his pockets.

If Kakashi was the type of man to whistle, you might have heard a jaunty tune added to the sounds of the night.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N ~ Thank you all for your reviews and follows. I want to take a second to make sure you all know how much I appreciate the reviews especially. I always mean to make a note or two in a new chapter, but I usually forget to add a note when entering the next chapter since I keep them offline. So please know I appreciate it and read every comment, and see every follow/favorite._

 _Its ridiculously cold where I live and I'm hoping this gives me a good reason to sit and write so I can get a few chapters prepped again (I've been slacking lately). I try to keep a few chapters written so I can build and marinate over the story to make sure I don't write myself into a wall as I go._

 _Happy reading my friends!_

* * *

Chapter 10

"Say, Kaka-sensei!" yelled the boisterous blonde from only a few feet behind the Copy Nin. "This is just like old times, dattebayo!"

Kakashi gave a noncommittal noise in response as he walked along, nose in his orange book. Sakura had to agree with Naruto and grinned at her friend who was walking while staring up at the sky, hands behind his head in a very Naruto-like fashion. Nevertheless, she smacked him (lightly, for her) upside his head.

"Don't shout, baka. He's right there and you'll blow out our eardrums."

"Ahhh…Sakura-chan…now it's even more like old times!" he rubbed the back of his head and grinned some more, used to her method of scolding by now. "All we're missing is Sasuke-teme. Where is he? I haven't seen him in a while, Kaka-sensei!"

Smack.

This time it was Shikamaru who had reprimanded the jinchuriki. "You know you shouldn't ask about that here, Naruto. Troublesome…"

Sakura giggled now, as the blonde realized his misstep and shuffled his feet as they continued walking. Several of the escort team deadpanned at the antics of their future hokage. Some things would never change.

The group was nearing the end of their third day of travel to Kumogakure for the Kage Summit. All in the party were ninja, and they had been making excellent time so far in their travels. At this rate they would arrive slightly ahead of schedule, which suited Sakura just fine. She was looking forward to sleeping away from the snores of her friend, no matter how nostalgic this trip had been so far.

Naruto was right, after all. The trip was like old times, excluding the larger number of people that were with this time. It had been years since she, Kakashi, and Naruto had been out as a team together. Even without Sasuke around, it just felt good to be traveling all day, sleeping under the stars or in tents as weather permitted. After the war most of her time had been devoted to the hospital, or to establishing hospitals in other villages. Kakashi and Naruto had gone on missions after the war together, but she had never been able to go. Her skills were too valuable elsewhere.

Not only were Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura all here, but Sai was also along. Yamato was still shadowing Orochimaru somewhere, which was a bummer since his Mokuton made camping a breeze. Apart from the four, Shikamaru and Anko had joined them, and an ANBU member strolled along. Six other ANBU members were floating around somewhere, likely keeping an eye out behind and in front of them, as well as in the more immediate vicinity. While it would be silly for anyone to attack this group of skilled shinobi, with the distance being traveled and for something as well known as the Kage Summit, even Kakashi had relented that it was a good idea.

Not long after this exchange, Kakashi's path deviated into the trees from the main road. Her curiosity was peaked as he marched off with purpose, only to realize he knew exactly where he was going as they came to a clearing after a few minutes. The landscape had been slowly changing from the forests of the Land of Fire to the mountainous terrain of the Land of Lightning. Rivers flowed between the two lands and she found that where Kakashi had led them to was an area where a river had flowed into part of the grove to create a large pool that appeared to be relatively calm. Others seemed to realize immediately that this was where Kakashi had meant for them to spend the night, as the ANBU started removing their packs.

Seeing the pool, Naruto whooped and threw his pack as he sprinted toward it, losing articles of clothing as he went. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when he left his boxers on, noting that even his boxers showed his obsession with ramen as they sported a pattern of bowls of steaming ramen. It wouldn't have been the first time she had seen him in a full state of undress by far, but normally that had happened out of necessity or by accident.

Kakashi chuckled as Anko followed, stripping down to her mesh bodysuit, which honestly might as well have not been there for all that it didn't show. Naruto launched himself over the pool in a cannonball, splashing as high as he could. Anko grinned, yelling a challenge to him before snakes shot out from her arm to wrap around a branch. She launched herself up, swinging high before spinning into a ball and back down toward where Naruto was treading water.

He yelled and moved out of her way as quickly as he could. She must have put some chakra into her body because the splash she made caused waves to splash up onto the shore. Shikamaru, seeing the energy and danger of splashing water, decided to find refuge in a tree that would be safely out of the way of the troublesome shenanigans.

While the ANBU were busy setting up camp, gathering wood, and prepping dinner for the group, Sakura took the opportunity to read through the scroll she had started during their midday break. It was thus far a fairly outdated scroll on the developments of antidotes, but Sakura was nothing if not thorough. You never know when a passing thought would be scribbled into a text that had would be ground-breaking, in turn sparking a new discovery. In fact, she had a couple notes to investigate on theoretical manipulation of chakra threads for puppet users that could prove to be amazingly handy to puppet users if they ever found themselves without their puppets. She was hoping to be able to discuss it further with Kankuro during the summit.

She had chosen a sunny patch of grass far enough away from the natural pool so as to be out of the line of fire as Anko, Naruto, and now Sai were having a water war. It had escalated quite a bit farther now, with Anko releasing her snakes into the water, Sai using a new waterproof ink he had been developing, and Naruto of course creating dozens of clones. Sakura chuckled as several of the Narutos were pulled underwater by either Anko's or Sai's creations, she wasn't sure which. Watching with a small smile, she rolled her shoulders and arched her back a bit. Sitting this way was starting to hurt her back, but as she was considering finding a tree to lean against a warm body sat down and leaned slightly against her back. She knew who it was without looking, but she did anyway.

She wasn't sure if Kakashi had decided to _use_ her as support while he read, basking in the last rays of sunshine like she was doing, or if he was doing so to _give_ her the support, but she didn't mind either way. Kakashi had removed his hokage hat (the only part of his official garb he consented to use when not in formal meetings, and even that was iffy) as well as the grey chest armor that had replaced his jounin vest when he became hokage. Sighing contentedly, she turned back to her scroll and settled into his back. She heard him chuckle softly and as he did so in return.

She was sure he was reading his Icha Icha book still. They had done this numerous times on previous missions, normally while Naruto and Sasuke, or later Sai, were training, arguing, or generally being obnoxious in the distance.

When an ANBU member announced that dinner had been finished and was ready for them all, Sakura and Kakashi also waited for Naruto to storm forward and claim his share before joining the group, which gave Sakura a chance to make a final notation on the seal of the scroll as she finished reading it, marking it as an outdated and unremarkable work. Sighing, she lightened the pressure she was putting against Kakashi's back, signaling her desire to get up. Wordlessly, the pair stood and made their way over to the campfire that was well matured despite the sun just starting to set.

One of the ANBU had made a fish stew that was surprisingly good. He had done similar meals the last couple of nights, all using fresh ingredients. Sakura had been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, and the shinobi had explained that he had been gathering ingredients as they had moved along throughout the day. Sakura had been slightly abashed that he had been taking time to forage while they traveled (it seemed likely that his attention would have thus been where it should have been - focused on security), but had been instantly reassured when a swarm of bees had approached. Upon recognizing the noise and realizing that they weren't simply a hive of angry insects, she had realized that they were in fact working together and hauling a fresh batch of early strawberries, three or four bees to some of the fruits. The bees had deposited them in a pile in front of their master, who Sakura surmised was an Aburame after that.

Apparently this evening they had found some mushrooms and wild peas, and herbs. The rice was surely from the rations that had been brought along. Sakura also guessed that in all the splashing and water games, either Anko or Sai had produced the fish to be put into the pot. She was forced to amend that thought when a couple minutes later Naruto asked about the extra fish he had sent over to be roasted over the fire. Apparently the natural pool had been a fisherman's dream and Naruto had taken the opportunity to make sure he had more than enough to eat tonight. He was a bottomless pit, and he hadn't been able to properly gorge himself on Ichiraku Ramen before they left due to Shikamaru keeping him busy with "junior hokage" duties. Sakura shook her head; she would never understand how Naruto could pack away as much ramen as he did. She'd watched him do it for years but it still made her lose her own appetite at times.

After Naruto and the others had eaten their fill, there were still a dozen fish left. Not wanting the food to go to waste, Kakashi summoned his ninken, who had been the supplemental night watch during the trip so far. While not strictly necessary, the silver head had explained that since he was cooped up in the hokage tower for so long, he hadn't had appropriate time with all of his active pack at once in months. This travel was the perfect excuse. He was summoning them every evening, and the ninja dogs would then sleep during the day before being summoned again. Fish wasn't their favorite, compared to other meats, but once Sakura and Sai offered to de-bone the fish for the ninken, they were only happy to partake in dinner.

The ninken gathered around "their favorite kunoichi" and "the pale one" and happily yipped as Sakura and Sai removed the large bones and tossed a fish to each of them in turn, Bull getting a couple extra because of his size. As each of the ninken finished their fish they ran off into the woods to start their watches.

Even using her chakra as a blade to filet the fish, by the time Sakura was done she could smell the fish on her. Deciding the end of the sunset was a perfect time to bathe, she snuck off to where it looked like a second, smaller natural pool extended into a copse of trees and bushes for some privacy.

She was correct in her observation and found a lovely pool sitting back from the fuller river. It was a small area, about 15 feet in diameter, but it looked quite deep; even though the water was crystal clear, she couldn't see the bottom. She glanced around before pulling out the scroll with her clean clothes sealed within, as well as the one with her toiletries. Setting them on a slightly elevated rock on the edge of the pool where she could reach them, she shucked off her clothes after glancing around to be sure nobody was around, and slipped into the pool.

The water was quite cold, but after a few moments she adjusted to it. After washing she wasn't quite ready to return to the camp and what would likely be Naruto's incessant snoring already. Once that man laid down for the night he was out as effectively as if she had knocked him over the head with a tree, a comparison that always made her smile since it inevitably brought about the memory of when she had done so.

Instead, she decided to play a bit in the water; it was delightful to have the weight of gravity lessened on her joints after days on the road. She did a few small dives, flipping and stretching under the water, all while seeing how long she could hold her breath. The water was wonderfully clear and seemed to get a little warmer the further down she went. Wanting to see how much further she could go, she surfaced for a moment to take a deep breath before diving again.

Again as she got further down the water warmed again. After a few more meters than she had been able to go she found a rocky bottom to the pool and what seemed like a cavern to the side. The rock was worn smooth from the gentle current coming from the small cavern. It was hard to see so far down now with dusk settling over her, but the waterway was definitely the source of the warm water; there must be some hot springs nearby that this sourced from. Part of her wondered in fascination at the smooth tunnel that seemed just wide enough for someone of her size to swim through. She wondered where it came out; a soak in a natural hot spring sounded like an amazing end to the day. But she wasn't crazy; despite her curiosity she wasn't fool enough to find out how far the opening went.

As her lungs started to burn, she kicked off the bottom of the pool and shot toward the surface. Her face hit cold clean air and she filled her lungs again, blinking the water from her eyelashes. As she did, she met the small black eyes of Pakkun.

"Having fun, Pinkie?" Seeing her looking around for others he assuaged her fears, "It's just me. I smelled my shampoo as I was passing. Thought you might like someone to keep an eye out for you. You seemed like you could use some relaxation. Boss said you've been busy."

"He told you?"

"Yep. Boss said you'd be around for a while now and if you ever needed something we should try to help. Bull said he didn't need to be told to help you. I agree. So did everybody else. Except Urushi. And he didn't disagree as much as roll his eyes and go back to sleep."

Sakura was flattered. The ninken were Kakashi's summons. They generally didn't listen to others. The fact that they were willing to help her if ever needed without even being directed to by Kakashi…she was touched. She had always liked Kakashi's ninken and had tried to be sure to give them some attention whenever she saw them long enough. Apparently they liked her too. She muttered her thanks to the pug and proceeded to extricate herself from the pool. The pug kept an eye out as she dried herself and got dressed before escorting her back to camp through the now dark wooded area.

"Is it your night to keep watch?" she asked as they neared the camp again.

"Nah. I kept watch last night. I'm just here to run for a while and establish a perimeter in the beginning. I get to relax tonight," the pug responded, trotting alongside her.

"Well if you need a place to curl up, you're welcome to my tent with me Pakkun."

The pug yipped happily and spun in a circle before regaining his dignity. "Thank you, Sakura-chan."

She giggled and nodded, happy to have the pug with her. The last couple nights had gotten quite cold for this time of year, and while her bath had been needed, her hair would be wet when she went to bed.

* * *

As they strolled back into camp, Sakura heard the tell-tale snore that meant Naruto had indeed passed out asleep already. They'd been getting up with the sun to start their day of travel, and while the travel was easy, doing so for most of the day at the pace they did could still be exhausting. Between that and his now full belly she was surprised she hadn't heard his snores sooner. She could also see Anko and a couple ANBU members talking around the campfire, too low for her to make out. She and her furry companion proceeded past what was obviously Naruto's tent on the edge of the camp. The group had learned quickly to put him as far away from everyone else after the first night, otherwise nobody would get any sleep at all.

"Perimeter established?" came a voice from above Sakura. She hadn't noticed Kakashi lying on a branch of one of the large trees under which several of the tents sat.

"Sure is, Boss," said Pakkun, not breaking stride as headed toward what he knew was Sakura's tent, sitting in front of the tent flap to wait for Sakura to unzip it and allow him in.

The pinkette glanced up at the shadowy figure of her hokage and shrugged at his raised eyebrows she was able to distinguish from the flickering light of the fire. "It's cold at night," was all she said in response to his look, before she waved and entered her tent with Pakkun close behind her.

Kakashi didn't mind, he told himself. While he wasn't as loud as Naruto, Pakkun snored and could be much too talkative in his sleep sometimes. And this way he wouldn't have to worry about rolling over onto the small dog if he was plagued with nightmares this evening. Nightmares around Obito and Rin were less frequent now, but still a normal occurrence for his nights. It was good that Pakkun would be bunking with Sakura instead of him, especially if she was cold. That's right.

Waving goodnight to Anko and the ANBU still around the fire with a frown that they couldn't see, Kakashi hopped down from the tree and went to his own tent. He found Urushi waiting for him inside, the sandy-colored dog being his personal guard for the night. Of his eight ninken, four would be on watch tonight, one more in his tent as a last line of defense, and the remaining three would have the night off to sleep after the perimeter had been established. The other two ninken (apart from Pakkun) who had the night off would likely run around for a while before curling up near the fire in the center of the camp.

Kakashi found it interesting that Pakkun had joined Sakura in her tent. He found himself slightly anxious about it, given the curious questions he had received from Pakkun on their first day of travel. After having summoned his ninken and explaining the situation to them and how he wanted them to help keep watch at night, he had mentioned the travels after with Sakura and other ANBU. It was then that he had asked them to treat Sakura's word as his own. Their reaction had surprised him to say the least. Their contract was with him and their reaction had been various statements of "well, duh".

Kakashi had still been quite pleased at their acceptance of his direction. That is until Pakkun had then taken note of Kakashi's scent and commented on it; he had been nervous about his request. This led to several awkward questions about why Kakashi would be nervous about such a request, seeing as they all knew the pinkette well and would gladly help out the kunoichi if she required it. Kakashi had promptly poof-ed away from this line of questioning.

That had not stopped the questions, or the comments from his ninja hounds. Their second day of travel the dogs had run with them, occasionally muttering to one another. It had been only because of the morning's breeze that Kakashi's exceptional hearing caught a couple words from time to time, all centered around the words "boss," "mate," and "pink." It made him thankful only a couple of the ninken could speak to humans. This feeling increased tenfold when these comments evolved into questions when they stopped for the evening, and not only questions that were asked of him. As far as he could tell Pakkun and Akino hadn't asked Sakura any real questions that would be cause for him to be alarmed. Instead they had been simple things. To anyone but Kakashi they may have seemed almost conversational.

But Kakashi knew his ninken better. They were all too attentive to her throughout the day and dinner that night. At least one was always near her as they traveled. Bull was suspiciously restless as they sat around the fire after dinner, fidgeting toward Sakura who kept scooting closer to Kakashi in an effort to give the slobbery, bear of a dog more space. Uhei had helped the ANBU set up the campsite, distributing tents in a way that put Sakura and Kakashi off to one side of a tree from the others. It had seemed casual placement and no one had seemed to notice anything, but again, he knew his ninken better.

Which is why Kakashi did not have them travel with the group for their third day on the road, and had only summoned them once dinner had been completed.

So now, Pakkun being in Sakura's tent for the night was slightly concerning. For such a small dog, he was the most stubborn, and sure did talk a lot when he got a mind to do so.

 _No. He wouldn't. He's still_ my _summon._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The next morning, Sakura woke feeling warmer than she had the last couple nights, but something else was different too. Pulling herself from the depths of her sleep she noticed a tightness in her chest that was preventing her from taking a deep breath in. Starting to crack open her eyes, she reached to lay a hand to her chest where the tightness was sourced, and quickly looked down when her hand met something warm...and furry.

"Mornin'," said the gruff voice of the pug who had apparently decided her chest was as good a place as any to lie down for the night.

In her state of waking she had forgotten the pug had stayed with her during the night. She didn't exactly mind his choice of bed, however. He was surprisingly light for such a muscular little dog, and he was certainly the reason she had slept so soundly, not having to fend off the chill of the night with him there. He also didn't smell like a dog. He smelled like her, or rather, her shampoo.

"Good morning, Pakkun," she yawned as the dog did the same, jumping down from his spot. "I hope you slept well?"

The dog let out a soft snort. "You're a much better human to sleep with than Kakashi. He moves too much. Not to mention if he has a real doozy of a nightmare. You ever wake up to a chidori at 3 AM?"

Sakura giggled at the thought of such a sight, before her face fell at what Pakkun had just let slip. He had nightmares that bad? She stared off for a moment in contemplation before Pakkun brought her back to the present with a soft gruff.

"Sorry Pinkie. Ya' mind? There's a tree callin' me, and then I gotta check in with the guys who were on watch."

Apologizing, Sakura unzipped the tent for him to dash out, before closing the tent again to change for the day of travel that would begin soon. She was still lost in thought as she came back from washing her face, to find the others gathering around the fire again.

Breakfast this morning consisted of oatcakes that were part of their provisions with some fresh berries foraged by the suspected Aburame, as well as some honey from a hive they had located overnight, still in the comb. The honey was exceptional, and both Anko and Sakura expressed their extreme appreciation for it as they finished up their meals.

Taking another cup of tea from the kettle, Sakura was surprised when Kakashi offered his own chunk of the honeycomb to her for her tea. He wasn't overly fond of such sweet things, he reminded her quietly, it might as well go to someone who would appreciate it. Sakura happily accepted the treat and let the honey melt into her tea for a moment before discarding the comb before it could melt as well. She didn't notice the smug look of the pug that watched the exchange from nearby. She also didn't notice the Copy Ninja catch said dog's eye with a small glare and gesture of the chin to summon him to follow into the trees. A certain dark haired Nara did though.

 _Interesting._

The Nara had been watching the pair closely over the last few weeks whenever he found them together, which was slightly more often than he would have expected. He had also been noticing the glances his hokage had been sneaking at the medic as they traveled. It was easy to catch these things when you were well-known for not paying attention. True, Shikamaru was still lazy, but being the hokage's apprentice for some time now, he had learned to take advantage of the assumptions people made about his disinterest. He frequently found that by actually paying attention when people weren't expecting him to, he could eliminate some of the more troublesome things that may interfere with his day if he took note of the signs and took care of the issue before it became a bigger issue.

Yes, Shikamaru had learned how to even make being proactive help him be lazy. It might seem like an oxymoron, but he had perfected the art of proactive laziness, as Temari called it. The key to it was knowing when being proactive was more work than the issue would be, and only taking action when it would actually save him trouble in the long run. But in the mean time, he had learned to make a bit of a strategy game out of the behaviors of people. By listening and watching, he could guess what each player might do, what their own strategy might be, and he could then formulate the best way in which to give him the least amount of trouble as possible while getting his job done. It was rather like playing shogi with nearly every person in the village. Games with some players might only get through a move or two in a week; whereas entire games with others, like Kakashi, could take place in mere minutes.

Truthfully, Kakashi had dozens of games going with at a time, and not all with Shikamaru. Some were larger political strategies where Shikamaru was more of a sounding board than an opponent, but it was still helpful to try to anticipate Kakashi's moves in order to best support him…and if he sometimes slipped an extra piece onto the board in Kakashi's favor, so be it. Some of the silver-head's games were quick stealth attacks, which usually ending with the hokage making a break for it to skive off of meetings for the day in favor of a tree branch and a book. And still other games were simply distractions to keep Shikamaru from noticing the latter stealth attacks until it was too late.

This particular game, though...the Nara clan head wasn't sure Kakashi even knew he was playing this one, and if he did, perhaps not that someone else (Shikamaru) had noticed that pieces were being moved around the board.

He was certain, however that Sakura didn't know she was Kakashi's current main opponent, and had been for some weeks now.

* * *

The morning had passed by fairly quickly. Shortly after Shikamaru's observations, Kakashi had returned from his private conversation with Pakkun, made a show of dismissing all of his ninken but the latter, and the group had set out as soon as Naruto could be pushed back onto his feet after he had tried to fall asleep after breakfast. In the end it had been a bee sent by an annoyed ANBU member that had gotten the jinchuriki on his feet.

Naruto was now beginning to complain that it was well past time for lunch and that the silver-haired slave driver was going to kill them all through starvation. In truth, they had been traveling along at a pretty quick pace. Quicker than they had been the day or two before; not a desperate sprint, but not a pace that would have been more fitting to the fact that they would be arriving tomorrow by mid-morning, almost a full day ahead of schedule. Kakashi and the ANBU seemed to want to try to get to Kumo tonight.

Pondering over this, Sakura casually started circulating through the group to pass out some of the energy bars she had developed. They weren't as potent as her food pills, but they tasted significantly better and were quite a bit easier to make since the ingredients didn't take as much preparation and weren't as rare. If the ANBU weren't going to stop right now there was probably a good reason. She knew better than to question them, unlike the loudmouth.

She approached Kakashi under the same pretext, a bar in hand.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," he said meaningfully, casting her a small glance. He saw her nod at him and take out a bar of her own. He smirked under his mask. She was always a clever one.

Under the guise of eating her bar, she muttered, "how many?"

"Sixteen. Maybe seventeen," he replied from behind the hand that pulled away his mask as he slipped a piece of his own bar into his mouth. Knowing what her next question was he gave her the answer before she could ask, back in his normal volume. "How was your tea this morning?"

Hmmm…that answers that. He must have noticed when he went to talk to Pakkun. Or maybe the ninken had noticed. That was probably why he had dismissed most of them so strangely.

"I was thinking," Kakashi continued, "we could stop for some more in a little while. I didn't really get to enjoy mine."

He's heading for better ground. He's obviously been here before, he must know there's a spot ahead that will provide us an advantage against our pursuers.

"That sounds great, Kakashi-sama," she replied. Smiling at him to show she understood, she glanced over only to see a small frown in his eyes.

Does he think I didn't understand?

His frown vanished as he saw her brows twitch ever so slightly in question, giving her a reassuring eye-crinkle.

No. He knows I understood…why the frown?

"Well then, Sakura-sama, we should arrive shortly. Don't let Naruto take off by himself for a nap when we do though. We don't need to lose more of ANBU-san's bees."

She rolled her eyes, recognizing what had caused his displeasure now. "Hai, Kakashi-san." She heard him chuckle in reply.

Impossible man.

Impossible woman.

A few minutes later Sakura saw what Kakashi was waiting for. Ahead was a far stretch of flat land before the mountains truly started jutting from the landscape. Kakashi was going to draw those pursuing them out where they could no longer hide.

The ANBU seemed to know exactly what was going on as well, as they came to a halt at the same time as Kakashi, conveniently out of range of most attacks that could be launched from the tree line. From where she stood Sakura saw a brief glimmer of movement as Anko released snakes from her sleeves under the guise of being tired and sitting on the ground in some taller grass. Shikamaru sat as well, hands together in a circle as if he was meditating. Everyone was simply milling around like they were truly going to take a break.

Sakura was caught unaware when Naruto scooped her up in a tight hug, arching his back to lift her above him, thanking her for 'whatever she had said to Kaka-sensei' because it was time for a break and a proper lunch.

Encased in the blonde's crushing grasp, Sakura felt her anxiety spike. Held as she was she could not move, and the blonde hadn't noticed what everyone else had in the last bit of their journey. He was carefree and his back was to the trees. She stiffened in his arms, looking for the tell-tale flash of metal flying toward them.

"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" he asked of the squirming pinkette in his arms.

Breaking her gaze to look up at him she glared. "Let me go! Baka!"

As she glared at him, she heard it. The faint whisper of something - several somethings! - flying toward them. Panic struck her as she saw in her mind's eye the kunai pierce through her friend's back.

In the next instant she found herself falling from Naruto's arms as he spun around, lighting up in yellow-orange chakra as he reacted, deflecting the volley of weapons sent toward them. But there were too many for him to deflect, and several senbon and kunai whizzed by toward the pinkette who still had yet to land on her feet. She wouldn't be able to get to a kunai in time.

Deciding she'd rather obtain some minor injuries, she moved to block the projectiles with her forearms. She could always heal her arms, but those injuries wouldn't be so bad as if they hit an organ. Sakura braced herself for the sting of senbon as her toes came into contact with the grass.

Only to feel a faint breeze, followed by a tickle in her face and the gentle 'tinks' of metal on metal.

She opened her eyes to see only silver.

The fine silver mop in front of her shifted and brushed against her cheek before she realized what had happened. Kakashi, in the speed known by few shinobi had squeezed in between herself and Naruto and had parried the attack that would have otherwise hit her as she landed. He was now crouched in front of her, on guard for any more rogue weaponry.

Time stood still for a moment as everyone waited with baited breath for the next attack that was surely coming.

And then they heard it. A distant, quick rumble, and a chorus of moving blades of grass, though there was no wind. After a moment, screams overpowered these noises, and sixteen shinobi burst from the trees, followed by swarms of bees. They could see snakes wrapping their way up the legs of several unfortunate souls.

And with that the field burst to life. The ANBU scattered into teams of 2, their captain hanging back with Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Sakura. Naruto of course took off shouting challenges to any that could hear him. Anko sprinted in with her normal exuberant fierceness. All while Sai started drawing his attack beasts and snakes to join in the charge.

All-in-all, it was an uneven match and wasn't really a fair fight. Sixteen rogue ninja simply weren't a match for the nine ninja that into the battle. It was only a matter of minutes before they were all subdued and restrained.

"What was that?!" Anko demanded. "I thought it might at least be a fun fight! That was pathetic!" She leaned over in front of one of the larger men and licked her lips. "What do you say…want to try again? I won't use my snakes this time…"

The man shuddered in response and Anko sighed in boredom before she settled down to clean her knives. Her snakes had disappeared to who knows where. And really…Sakura didn't want to think about where. Anko had always made her a little uncomfortable. She was an amazing kunoichi and had unquestionable loyalty, but the influence of Orochimaru was evident, and to say the man was "creepy" was a horrible understatement.

Behind her, Sakura heard Shikamaru muttering to Kakashi.

"That was a little too easy, Hokage-sama."

"You may be correct, as usual, Shikamaru. Pakkun mentioned the scent wasn't quite right from what they caught wind of this morning. He's out looking around now."

As if summoned, Pakkun trotted up to the men and sat down, ready to report. The moment the pug was certain he had the attention of the men and with a wink to Sakura, which didn't escape Kakashi's notice, he confirmed that someone was missing.

"A powerful someone. Woman by the smell. She left a couple miles back. Scent just disappeared, boss. I have a couple of the boys out sniffing around to see if they can pick up anybody nearby. I ran across the scent of a few similar sized groups, gone a day or two in most cases. Probably fifty people in total, but none as powerful as the woman."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that. "Fifty other rogues in this area? Troublesome."

"Troublesome indeed," agreed Kakashi. He rubbed his chin through his mask. "Seems like an awfully large number of people. I know I'm handsome, but this is a little excessive…"

Sakura snorted.

"Baka-sensei," called the blonde nearby, "what makes you think it's about you? I'm the future hokage! Oi!"

Sakura had smacked the back of his head for the 'baka-sensei' comment. "And Kakashi-san is the current hokage. Why would they care about you, loudmouth?"

"Hmmm…," Kakashi rubbed his chin again. "Sasuke mentioned he was being tracked. He didn't say it was this many people…"

"Teme would leave that out…," Naruto mumbled. "Show off. He always gets to have all the fun…" It occurred to Naruto exactly what Kakashi had said. "Wait! Teme? You heard from him? Is he coming here? How long is he staying? What has he been doing? Can I help? Is it a mission? What? Why are you all rolling your eyes at me?"

At this point the ANBU captain approached their little group and saved them all from having to answer the onslaught of queries. "Hokage-sama, it would be wise for us to get moving again. Most of the rogues are just there because they were instructed to by their leaders, but those identified as the leaders couldn't remember why they were pursuing us. Bear-san tried to probe the big one's memories, but they were tampered with. It was just like all of a sudden the need to intercept us popped into his head, but with no rationale."

"If we leave now, we could probably make it to Kumo by night, Hokage-sama. It's troublesome, but with that many in the vicinity the last couple of days, it may be wise to push on."

Kakashi sighed. "I think that's wise, Shikamaru-san, Cat-san. If this is related to Sasuke, he's likely waiting for us there."

"Would someone tell me what the Teme has to do with this? What's he been doing, Kakashi-sensei?!"

Ignoring the rambunctious blonde, two ANBU members began casting genjustu to subdue the captured rogues, and then to hide them. Once the party reached Kumogakure a retrieval group would come back to bring them in, but for now their priority was getting the hokage and his staff to the village safely, and while their group was powerful, fifty unknown shinobi was enough to keep them from separating.

Within minutes the group was set to go again. Naruto was still asking questions of anyone that would listen, not that he was getting any answers from anyone. They all knew he was just excited at the thought of seeing Sasuke, and potentially a mission. He always got a bit ridiculous when Sasuke came back into town, but being out in the field with the rest of Team 7 seemed to have increased his antics tenfold. In fact, his questions persisted until they were nearly to Kumogakure, though eventually the questions changed from what Sasuke had been doing and where, to when they would be able to eat dinner.


	12. Chapter 12

_Two chapters in less than 24 hours you say?! Why yes m'dears. I felt inspired to write last night and since you all have been waiting for another chapter so patiently, I thought I'd push a second one before the weekend._

 _Thank you all for your kind words, reviews, favorites, and follows! It's quite energizing to see those coming through and I appreciate each and every one of them, and you!_

 _Happy weekend to you all! Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 12

Upon approaching the Hidden Cloud Village, the entire party breathed a silent sigh of relief. One reason being they could now be considered safe enough from the unknown group of rogues that had been getting slowly closer. It was hard to say if it was on purpose or if the group from Konoha was their target or if the rogues were tailing them simply because they were there. None had gotten close enough to see the party and it's members to Kakashi's knowledge, but he had a hunch it was because they suspected who was in the party that the rogues were hanging back. That said, the ANBU as well as Anko, disappeared onto the rooftops , likely to search out ahead for possible dangers to the hokage.

Another reason for their relief was the end of Naruto's incessant grumbling and questions about dinner. It was late now, the sun had set some time ago, but the restaurants and bars were still in full swing with patrons eating and drinking. This was by no means Naruto's first time in Kumo, and he pleaded with Kakashi to let him part with the group to find some food. Kakashi, who was eager to keep the blonde from breaking down in the middle of the street in a fit of hunger, excused Naruto without a second thought. They had been moving as quickly as the group could for the past several hours and had not deemed it safe to stop for food.

Sakura shook her head as Naruto disappeared with near inhuman speed. "You'd think he had been in captivity for a month…," she muttered as she continued on toward the raikage's tower.

Not wanting Naruto to go off by himself, despite the fact that he could take care of himself normally, Kakashi raised an eyebrow and made eye contact with Sai and Shikamaru.

"Naruto is frequently oblivious when he's hungry. We shall go make sure he doesn't do anything foolish," Sai nodded in response. The two walked off in the direction of a restaurant where Naruto could be heard ordering what must be close to their full menu.

Kakashi nodded his thanks to the pair and proceeded along in Sakura's wake. She was in no mood for Naruto's exuberance. She hadn't eaten since breakfast either with the exception of the bars she had passed around, but she hadn't complained about it. She had, on the other hand, needed to listen to Naruto belly ache about, well, his belly ache for the last several hours, after several hours of his incessent questions about Sasuke. Kakashi was sure she was looking forward to seeing Sasuke as well, but she had matured more than Naruto had in the least few years. And thankfully she was no longer obsessed with the broody Uchiha.

Kakashi was started to reconsider the former thought when a group of young Cloud shinobi cat called her from their spot near the door of a bar. Sakura was obviously in kunoichi garb, but apparently these particular ninja hadn't heard of Sakura before and had decided her long pink hair made her a less than formidable kunoichi. This surprised Kakashi, since Sakura had treated numerous shinobi throughout the war, but these ninja were perhaps a little too young to have been on the front lines where Sakura had been most prevalent.

Kakashi watched from behind her as she stiffened, her fists clenching and leather gloves creaking. He readied himself to intervene as he approached her stilled form, not wanting to create an international incident within minutes of entering Kumo. He was pleased, however, when instead of reacting to the suggestive comments regarding her flexibility and the demeaning calls of "hime" following her, she continued on toward their destination. Had she looked back at him she would have seen his trademark eye crinkle grace his face.

However, she was busy looking for an outlet to her frustration, which she found in the form of a water barrel a few steps later. The cat-calls ended with choked gasps not even remotely befitting a shinobi as she flicked downward on the lid of the barrel with her thumb and forefinger. All that was left of the barrel were splinters of wood and a rather large puddle. Not only had she resisted knocking the overzealous nin into the the next street, she had only used enough chakra to break the barrel, with minimal impact to the ground under it.

Kakashi was impressed at her restraint as well as her chakra control. She had been working on isolating the damage caused by her chakra-filled punches. It wasn't entirely successful, but it had made a difference in some instances. Kakashi presumed there would be a small divot of maybe an inch or two where the base of the barrel had been, but that would be about it. She could certainly still create craters and fissures in the ground, or crumble a boulder ten times taller than she was into gravel, but she was indeed maturing.

Kakashi's amused smile grew into a straight up foolish grin under his mask. Her strength left him proud, and perhaps a little turned on. He had been known to be interested in the demure type of woman before, and he was certainly known to be attracted to gentle and feminine civilians in the past, but he was more intrigued by someone who could hold her own against him. Sakura was definitely in the latter group.

She certainly could hold her own against him, as she had proved many times. Oh, he could beat her in a serious spar if he wanted to, but it was more challenging now after he had lost his sharingan. He was still the Copy Nin, after all, and still faster than even many elite ninja could keep track of. Simply put, Kakashi thoroughly enjoyed going toe-to-toe with her when the opportunity arose.

The foolish grin morphed into a smirk that, if seen, would send most sensible people skittering away, as he quickened his pace. It wasn't only in a physical spar that he liked to go toe-to-toe with temperamental woman.

"Now, now, _hime_ , don't you think you should control your temper better?" he chided, knowing full well she had actually done an admirable job doing so already.

Pink hair whipped around so fast as she turned to him that it swung parallel to the ground and nearly hit him in the face as it rode the momentum of the spin into her own face. The glare was deadly, even as she pushed the hair back from where it had wrapped around her face.

"You know damn well that they deserved that rather than the barrel!" she growled.

Kakashi turned her around gently and keeping a hand on each of her arms he steered her toward the raikage tower again. "I'm sure they did, _hime_."

He braced himself as she hip checked him roughly to try to push him away as he held her arms to her sides. He patted her arm patronizingly and resisted the urge to chuckle as he watched her flush with outrage.

"Easy, Sakura-hime," he said soothingly, rubbing her arm.

* * *

A tingle spread along the back of her neck and scalp at his tone. He had practically purred at her. She stopped paying attention to where she was walking as she realized what had just happened. She found her skin burning where his hands rested.

 _Where did this come from? A minute ago he was teasing me, and then…._

Her train of thought ended abruptly, realizing that once again he was purposely teasing her simply to provoke a reaction from her. It was far from the first time he had done so, and it never ceased to annoy her that he manipulated her temper for his amusement.

* * *

 _3…2…1…_

Kakashi had noticed the subtle change in the tension under his hands. He knew she was figuring out what he was doing. Just as he anticipated, she pulsed chakra through her arms to push his hands away from her to retaliate.

As if on cue, a gruff voice rang out from down the street in front of them.

"Kakashi! Sakura-sama!" The fourth raikage was approaching them, followed by Killer Bee.

Sakura glared at Kakashi before turning with a polite smile on her face for the former kage. She suspected he had known the pair had been approaching and would arrive just in time to waylay her attack.

Indeed he had known. He'd become somewhat of an expert at this kind of game, and he loved to play it with Sakura more than anyone else.

"Ay. Bee. How kind of you to meet us here; it's nice to see you," he smiled at them, grabbing Sakura's arm and slipping it through his to escort her. He saw her look at him in surprise but feigned not to notice her brief glance.

"Bee-sama. Ay-sama," Sakura inclined her head to each of the tall men standing before her. Raising an eyebrow at the yondaime raikage, she inquired as to how his arm was.

Following the replication of Naruto's arm using Hashirama's cells, Sakura had done the same for the yondaime a year after the end of the war. Tsunade had offered it earlier, but the beast of a man had been stubborn, saying he was doing perfectly well without it. It wasn't until several months had gone by that during a virtual conference with the Cloud that Tsunade had scolded him rather mercilessly for being stubborn and foolish, ending in challenging him to arm wrestle with her, only to mock him for the lack of ambidexterity with only one hand. Sakura and Naruto had left the following day equipped with everything Sakura would need to replicate the process Tsunade had performed, and the living example as a guard should she exhaust herself in the process, which was not unusual.

The prosthetic limb enhancement had been completed flawlessly to Kakashi's understanding, and the large and muscular man stood in front of him proudly clenching his fist for Sakura in a gesture of strength.

"It's better than the original, Sakura-sama," he declared smiling fiercely at her. "I'm of half a mind to stick my right arm into that accursed black flame just to have you improve that one too. I doubt that bossy woman could beat me in an arm wrestling match then…"

"Lord Fourth, if you lose your arm, or any limb for that matter, intentionally, I most certainly will not replace it for you. And I'll send shishou back here to deal with you."

Kakashi had never seen the man before him look startled, and he was willing to place money on the guess that the slight widening of the former raikage's eyes was as close as he would ever get. A second later, the eyes shifted into a glare, and lastly softened into fondness for the feisty woman before him. Kakashi's arm tucked the pinkette's ever so slightly closer to his body at the look she was receiving from the man before them. She didn't seem to notice.

"Fool, ya fool! You're like an open book! Chasing a woman that could destroy you with her pinky. Where's my brother the nanadaime? Fool, the fool?"

Kakashi wilted somewhat as Killer Bee basically ignored the fact that Naruto was nowhere near being the hokage, and it was in fact, himself.

Sensing his pout, Sakura patted the arm holding hers before replying, "he went to find something to eat Bee-sama. You know how he is. I think he may end up being the first example of a black hole someday, and we'll find it in his stomach."

Not bothering to excuse himself, Bee wandered off in the direction of Naruto's chakra, rapping to himself about hunger and tailed beasts.

Shaking his head at his adoptive brother, the larger man turned to lead his silver and pink haired guests toward their destination. It was a short walk remaining at this point, but he explained that one of the ANBU operatives had sped along to notify the godaime raikage of their arrival and the brothers had volunteered to meet them while some final preparations for the summit were concluded and assistants were dispatched to ready the guest rooms ahead of schedule.

Kakashi inclined his head at that, lowering his voice so as not to be overheard, "I apologize for that, Ay. There was a reasonably large group of tourists we wished to avoid this morning but they seemed to have a similar itinerary to ourselves. We thought it best to hurry on lest we have to stand behind them in a line. You know how I hate to wait."

Sakura snorted at his attempt at a covert conversation, but mostly at the idea of him hating to wait. While it was perfectly true, it seemed Kakashi's biggest mission in life to make others wait. She squeaked as she received a small shock as Kakashi's free hand moved to pat hers in mock sympathy. She thought it strange that static electricity had impacted them when they were already touching, but was too tired to consider it further as they walked on.

Once they had arrived in Darui's office, Kakashi and Sakura reveled in seating themselves on the plush sofa in a more casual corner of the room. The trio spent several minutes reminiscing over war stories before the current raikage was able to join them. Darui was shocked upon hearing of the group of rogue ninja that had attacked the hokage's traveling party. After hearing that the defeated group was restrained and covered by a genjustsu, he immediately summoned an awaiting ANBU operative from his own village with a sharp whistle.

If the ANBU was surprised to hear of the groups of roaming rogue ninja, he did his position proud by not allowing a reaction to show. Kakashi knew however that the man's mind would have gone off like a shot, formulating a plan before his leader had even started to charge him with investigating the group that was still at large and securing those that had already been subdued. Before the ANBU could dash off, Kakashi suggested he take one of the Konoha ANBU, or Anko to assist in finding the hidden prisoners.

Thankfully, at this point no further information was known about what they were after or why, and the idea that Sasuke might be the target was total conjecture at this point, so Kakashi chose not to mention this bit of information. Loose lips sink ships, after all, and what Sasuke had been working on was a sensitive topic.

Conversation soon turned to more mundane topics such as village development. While normally Sakura would be interested in such discussion, or at least when it came round to aspects of healthcare and wellness in the village, all she had attention for at the moment was the variety of onigiri that had been brought up for them. She at as delicately as she could, feeling half starved after hours of moving as fast as she could. She wasn't considered slow any longer, but when you were running with the likes of Kakashi and Naruto for that long, feeling so worn down was par for the course.

Once her stomach had been filled the men nonchalantly decided it was best for the Konoha shinobi to head to their respective quarters to rest. Darui assured them he would send his own ANBU out for the rest of the party to make sure they were made aware of their quarters and where they were located. Pink and Silver heads bowed in unison at not needing to retrieve the team themselves and proceeded to follow a Cloud jounin to thier quarters. To their surprise, they were informed that the new political guest housing was arranged entirely in the form of suites. Each floor was a separate suite with central common areas including a kitchen, surrounded by four bedrooms, each with attached baths. One room would be the largest with the most luxurious furnishings and bath, followed by another that was slightly smaller, but still indulgent in size and accommodation, with the final two being the smallest and of comparable size to one another. While the whole suite was quite lovely, the design had been decided upon in order to cater to the socially expected ranking of their guests while also providing a central and private location for the party to congregate.

Once they reached the floor that Kakashi, Sakura, and two of the ANBU team would be occupying, their escort handed them each an electronic key to access their suite with and promptly left them to assist with locating the other Konoha visitors.

Unlocking the door with his own key, Kakashi promptly stepped aside to allow Sakura entry first. Ushering her past him and into their accommodations, he was not expecting her to have stopped dead just inside the door. He realized just as the door swung shut behind him that Sakura was staring at a cloaked figure collapsed on the couch in the center of the room, arm hanging limply off the side. A figure that they both knew well, despite having not actually seen him for several months.

"S-Sasuke-kun?"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"S-Sasuke-kun?"

The words had come out of her mouth so quietly that even Kakashi could barely hear her, let alone the figure on the couch, but she knew she was correct in her observation without an answer. The pair were frozen in the doorway, the room dark now, save for the moonlight shining gently through a large window opposite them.

Sakura's hesitation lasted only a second longer before she appeared in front of Sasuke's limp form on the couch. Her medical training took over as she reached out two fingers toward his neck to search for a pulse. This was rendered a moot point in the next instant as a flurry of movements happened faster than most people would have been able to keep track of. Sasuke's one good arm snapped to Sakura's throat. A small gust of wind signaled Kakashi's reaction and instantaneous presence at her side to grip Sasuke's wrist. Sakura's left hand went straight to the nerves at Sasuke's shoulder to temporarily disable the muscles in his arm while her right hand glowed green and drifted to the side of his head.

As quickly as it had began, the danger was over. Sasuke's body relaxed, except Kakashi's hand holding his arm in place, but he could no longer move it on his own. All three did not stir for several seconds as they maintained their awareness despite the conclusion of any perceived danger.

The dainty hand still hanging over Sasuke's chest clenched into a fist and thumped him over the sternum harder than would be expected if it had been attached to anyone other than Haruno Sakura.

"Hn."

This was the only acknowledgement of the predicament they were all in and her retaliation afterwards.

Giving an exasperated sigh, Sakura withdrew the small chakra she had pushed into the Uchiha to diagnose him. He was fine, just exhausted. His state of chakra exhaustion was pronounced, more so than she could recall seeing in him since they were genin. With a muttered "…baka…" she moved away to locate the light switch for the common areas.

Once light had filled the room, she turned back to find Kakashi had draped himself in an armchair while Sasuke had sat up and shifted to one side of the couch he had previously wholly occupied. Shaking her head again at her boys, she moved into the kitchenette to start some tea. Obviously she wasn't going to get any sleep quite yet. She doubted Sasuke had bothered to eat anything more than soldier pills in the last few days based on the state of his chakra, but a glance into the refrigerator confirmed the railage's staff had been unprepared for them so soon. Tea would have to do for him as well.

When she returned to the sitting area and set the pot of tea on the small table between them, Kakashi leaned forward to serve them all as Sakura took a seat on the other end of the couch from the Uchiha. Kakashi slid one cup toward Sasuke after handing one to Sakura, then leaned back and inhaled the steam wafting from his own.

Glancing up over her cup, Sakura saw Kakashi's eyes dance in amusement. She leaned back and relaxed into the cushions as if nothing was amiss to sip from her tea.

"Sakura…," the Uchiha intoned with a slight sigh.

"Hai, Sasuke-kun?" she said in an overly saccharine voice. She fluttered her lashes slightly as she took a sip and continued, "It's so lovely to see you here. I missed you so."

Kakashi chuckled to her right, but she kept her wide and innocent eyes on the dark and annoyed ones on the other end of the couch.

"My arm, Sakura?"

She feigned a look of polite confusion over her teacup. He closed his eyes for a moment in response, feigning more irritation than she could tell he actually felt.

"Sakura-dono, would you be so kind as to restore the movement of my arm? I only have the one, after all." His slightly too-polite voice and chosen honorific was enough to push Sakura over the edge. She snorted as she leaned forward briefly to reconnected the severed nerves in his shoulder with a touch of her glowing fingertips.

"Why Sasuke-kun, I didn't realize you valued your arms so. Since you have yet to allow me to restore your other arm to you for the last few years."

Kakashi drained his cup and refilled it. If this was the direction the conversation was going they might be here for a while. It was one he had heard several times over before, and was not likely to resolve easily in Sakura's tired state. If she was bothering to argue about it with what little energy she currently had, she would likely do so until she fell asleep mid-sentence unless Sasuke managed to find a subject that could actually distract her.

Therefore, hot tea went straight down his windpipe as he heard Sasuke reply, "I'd like to request your assistance with that arm as well, Sakura."

Kakashi wasn't the only one not to expect this. Sakura simply stared at her near-brother, while said man watched Kakashi choke on his tea, his patented smirk in place.

"Nani?" she said after a moment, still not quite believing her ears.

"I would imagine it will be necessary in the reasonably foreseeable future."

She blinked at him again.

* * *

"Shall I take it," Kakashi said hoarsely as his coughing fit subsided, "that this foreseeable future would involve your last update and the pursuit you mentioned?"

"Hn."

 _Brooding as ever, aren't you, Sasuke?_

Choosing to act as if nothing was even remotely obnoxious about Sasuke's lack of volunteered detail, Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. He had recognized the need for a lack of information in the message he had received about two weeks ago, but Kakashi had little patience left for vague mind games tonight.

"What have you found, Sasuke? It must be big for you to have waited for us here, tonight. Not to mention the rather large group of rogue ninja that seem to be looking for you."

"Did you encounter them?" he asked urgently. His voice was calm, but both Kakashi and Sakura noticed the slight change in how Sasuke held himself that put them on edge.

"A few; low levels the lot. Not enough to have caused a scratch, but we also avoided several dozen that seemed to be approaching afterwards…"

Sasuke visibly relaxed again and he shut his eyes for a moment. "I did not think they would know so much or my intentions so quickly."

"Sasuke-kun….," came the growl from the now irritated kunoichi. It seemed she had gotten over the shock of Sasuke wanting her to actually restore his missing arm.

There was a poof of smoke and Sasuke leaned forward to place a scroll on the table in front of Kakashi. The hokage raised an eyebrow as he picked up the scroll and examined it. He recognized several layers of jutsu seals over the scroll, one of which required the scroll to only be opened by one of the three in the room. Under that were traps should anyone else try to break the seal. Several traps, in fact. What required this much protection that Sasuke was not only delivering it himself, but had planned for the possibility that he might not be able to deliver it safely? Adding the chakra signatures of Kakashi and Sakura to this scroll without their presence or a prior arrangement would have been quite a bit of work.

Sakura was also looking at the scroll curiously, her brows furrowed. Likely she was wondering the same as him.

Sighing, Kakashi flashed through the necessary signs to release the chakra seal, bypassing the traps with his authorized release, but not removing them. No need to redo them later if they were already deemed necessary.

Spreading the scroll out on the coffee table between them, he found only one small storage seal, but again with security to prevent anyone but the three of them from summoning the contents.

Sakura, who was more familiar with Sasuke's scribbles and less interested in the level of security on the storage justu, gasped before looking from Sasuke and then straight at Kakashi.

He glanced at her before returning his attention to the scribbles in front of him. After a moment he realized what the scroll held. He simply stared at the page, not believing his eyes.

Several moments passed while Kakashi stared at the scroll, Sakura stared at Kakashi, and Sasuke watched them both, waiting for their shock to ebb.

"Perhaps you should start from the beginning, ne, Sasuke?" the silver head said quietly, turning to his former student.

"Hn."

Sakura was still staring at the scroll, but the slight narrowing of her eyes and tilt to her head showed she was waiting for Sasuke to speak while her brain was whirling. The two men could practically hear the gears turning in her head.

"As you know, I've been travelling in search of any more information about Kaguya, Madara, and looking for the various hideouts that have been used over the last century. Both Obito and Orochimaru have hideouts that I have been scouring as well. Obito in particular seemed to have numerous places where he stayed, some of which are accessible only to someone with a mangekyo sharingan, or the ability to travel between dimensions. And even if that skill was present, finding the spaces he inhabited has been...a challenge."

Kakashi smirked. His old friend certainly had become skilled over the years. It still pained him to think that Obito had been alive all those years, but Kakashi had come to terms with the manipulation of Madara that had caused all of the events of the past.

"Orochimaru, however, has been easier. Knowing his habits and tricks, I have found a number of his abandoned labs, and have a great deal of his research for you, Sakura."

Her eyes left the scroll on the coffee table at that to look at him in disgust.

Sasuke inclined his head toward her, guessing at the reason behind her look. "There are a great many I have outright destroyed. Much of his work should never be known in such detail. I have summarized anything I destroyed for you, Kakashi, but the details of how such things were done should be lost."

Green and gray eyes simply continued to look at him, and so Sasuke continued on.

"That said, there is much that he learned that could be of use to us, even if to simply remedy such work in the future. He will not be the last driven to monstrous work."

Sakura nodded and shifted her gaze back to the storage scroll, her face grim, but conceding to Sasuke's point. She hoped for him to get to the scroll in front of her, but he had more to say first.

"Several documents that I've found had to do with the...transplantation...of bloodline limits. And no, not just Danzo and the Sharingan. He spent not a small amount of time collecting and cataloging various kekkai genkai. At first I thought it to only be scrolls regarding theory and his notes, but one of the oldest scrolls mentioned a method for preserving the kekkai genkai indefinitely."

Sakura grimaced, torn between medical fascination, curiosity, human disgust at the thought of the snake sannin having such a collection, and the possibility of what lay before her.

"Orochimaru does not make random and unrelated notes, so I started my search. It took some time to find the collection, but I did. Much of it is quite old, likely from the time before he defected, but it was added to as recently as months before I defeated him."

The most voluminous part of the collection was unsurprisingly pertaining to the sharingan. It was unsurprising, given his role in Danzo's transplants. However, Sasuke had been perturbed, then, to find extensive notes on the Mangenkyo and the differing abilities and patterns of four distinct sets, from first-hand knowledge only.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this. "Four?"

"Hn. Uchiha Shisui, my cousin who's first eye was stolen by Danzo. Itachi-ni, through observation only. Uchiha Obito, via observation of yourself after his supposed death, though that record is incomplete given what we know now. And from Uchiha Fugaku. It would seem that in return for his ...assistance, Orochimaru's price to Danzo was a set of eyes for his own study. My father's eyes."

"Sasuke...," Sakura whispered, tears in her eyes as she looked up to his face again. She laid her hand over his knee, allowing him the opportunity to move away if he desired. He did not. Instead he laid his over hers and squeezed lightly, silently showing his gratitude for her concern.

"My fathers eyes were not the only sharingan he possessed, but were certainly the most powerful. Danzo collected as many as he could after he manipulated my brother. Orochimaru was their keeper while Danzo built up enough strength to have a new eye implanted. He has a dozen or so more pairs of Sharingan stored, all in various stages of the first form."

Sasuke's face was twisted in displeasure at this sick collection of his kin. After a moment he continued on.

"It would seem that my discovery of this catalog was noticed by someone. It is this person that has been chasing me for some days now. I have yet to meet them head to head. They've kept me occupied with...others. By the time I have finished dealing with their distractions, they vanish. They have a powerful presence from what I can feel from afar. The last attempt they made to steal the catalog was performed by a civilian child, who was far too proficient in the use of a kunai to be natural."

At Sakura's intake of breath he squeezed the hand under his and looked away from the sharp eyes of Kakashi to her wide green orbs.

"The child is fine. I put him to sleep in a peaceful adaptation of tsukiyomi until I would be far enough away to dissuade pursuit. I sent Suigetsu to check on the child later and he reported nothing unusual, nothing like I had seen."

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "That sounds similar to manipulation that was used on the rogues we encountered. They did not exhibit enhanced skills though. They just seemed to have been...compelled to do as they had been told. To attack us."

"Hn. I have had several interesting interactions with those influenced. Since whoever this is seems to be quite adept at manipulation, I have stored Orochimaru's catalog in one of the hideouts that Obito had. It can only be reached with Kamui, and thus safe from being acquired by those that are searching for me. Since then, I've been traveling through dimensions to different countries to throw them off. I needed to reach you both without them knowing, or, failing that, with enough time before they could respond. The last I made my presence known I was nearing another of Orochimaru's larger labs in Wind. It has seemed they know where many of them are."

"So you're making them think you are searching for something else? No wonder your chakra is so depleted. But why Sasuke-kun? Why did you bring this here?" Sakura's eyes had been back on the scroll for some time now, but she looked up again to see his eyebrow raised at her.

His smirk made an appearance as he looked pointedly at her. "They are my father's eyes. It only seems fitting for me to keep them in my family and ensure they are used safely." They stared at one another for several moments.

Kakashi was growing uncomfortable; their hands were still laid over one anothers' and this silent communication seemed intimate to his eyes, leaving Kakashi feeling like the intruder. A tightness filled his chest as he observed them together and as Sakura's eyes began to fill with tears. He thought Sasuke and Sakura had long ago decided they were better off as friends, siblings, versus significant others. The gaze she held him with now seemed to be more.

Desiring to end his discomfort, Kakashi cleared his throat and motioned to the scroll holding what was likely the only thing Sasuke would be able to inherit from his own father.

"We can keep them safe until you are ready, Sasuke. Once it is safe I'm sure Sakura would be happy to help."

Breaking eye contact, Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his hokage. "Why wait? I am ready or I wouldn't have come. I've little doubt of Sakura's willingness to perform the transplant either."

An unladylike snort came from the latter. "Of course I am. I would need a day or two to prep. It's a good thing we arrived to the summit early, we should only need to request an additional day to accommodate for recovery..."

She was off in her own world now, muttering to herself about things she would need and what she needed to prepare.

"Sakura," he interrupted her gently, "surely there is no need to delay the summit...I do not wish to anger the other kages by putting such a thing above them in importance. I will leave some of the anbu here with you to stand guard. I'm sure you will be safe while I'm unavailable."

Another snort from the woman. "Like you could convince them to be anywhere else. And you won't be unavailable for long. It should only take an hour or two before you're out and we can evaluate how everything went. But I really have to insist you not attend the meeting, regardless of how quick the procedure should be."

"Sakura, I can't skip just because you're transplanting Fugaku-sama's eyes. I'm sure Sasuke will be just fine."

Her eyebrows drew together, glaring at him.

"What does that have to do with anything? Of course Sauske will be just fine," she sighed with exasperation. Kakashi could see her frustration building. Not a good sign with how tired she was after they rushed to Kumo. She took a deep breath. "Kakashi, I refuse to do the transplant if you do not ask for a day's delay. Do not be stubborn. We need to make sure there are no side effects before you go back to work. I can't exactly do that without you!"

Kakashi had no idea what she was on about. What could he do about side effects? Sasuke would know how the Sharingan should work. What could Kakadhi contribute?

Kakashi broke eye contact with the irate medic when Sasuke cleared his throat.

"Kakashi." The look on Sauske's face was amused. "You misunderstand." Kakashi frowned, scrunching his brow. He misunderstood?

He was brought back from his own thoughts a moment later by Sakura's hand, having been removed from Sasuke's knee, coming to rest on his hand now as she turned to him fully. The look on her face was now relaxed, tired, and amused.

"Kakashi...," she glanced over her shoulder at her raven haired teammate who was still smirking. "He didn't mean himself. You. He wants _you_ to have Fugaku-sama's eyes." She squeezed his hand as she fixed at him with a soft smile.


	14. Chapter 14

_AN ~ Thanks for the continued support for this story. I hope you're enjoying it. Things here have been a bit hectic. We bought a house (we weren't planning to), moved, been fixing a few things up, and I got a promotion, which has been taking a ton of my energy, so I apologize for the hiatus for a few months. I'm still committed to this story!_

 _If it's not too much to ask, please R &R. Reviews actually quite energize and inspire me to write some more. I may not always be the fastest at writing and posting - because life happens - but I'm in this for a good story and don't intend to leave it hanging. If I don't have the inspiration I don't force it. So, reviews are much appreciated!_

* * *

Kakashi's brows shot upward. His mind raced.

Sasuke let out a huff of air that was almost a laugh. "I can think of no better person to receive them, than someone who has been like a father to me. Even when I didn't deserve it." The Uchiha looked slightly (only slightly because he was doing his bet to appear nonchalant) uncomfortable at having to say so many words that were not strictly a mission report, and rather touching words at that,but still quite amused at the dense silver-haired hogake.

The latter's astonished gaze shifted to the woman in front if him when he felt her squeeze his hand. Reflexively, he turned his hand over to hold hers in turn, gripping her hard.

"Can you do it?" He asked, trying to feign indifference

What he was really feeling was far from indifference. Indifference was probably the one emotion he didn't have playing reckless air hockey with every internal organ he had.

He felt excitement. Excitement that he may have a sharingan again. Two sharingan! Two mangekyo sharingan. He could have the Sharingan again. Kakashi of the Sharingan.

Apprehension. Could he handle two sharingan? Just one was taxing at times for him in the past. Did he have enough chakra to manage these?

Determination. He could handle them. He had managed Obito's brief gift of two sharingan well enough. Never mind that it had only been for a short while, he had been near exhausted by then anyway. He could handle it. He was the Copy Ninja.

Pride. That's right. He was the Copy Ninja. Kakashi of 1000 jutsu's. The son of the White Fang. The (somewhat reluctant) Rokudaime Hokage. We was a powerful and respected ninja before the Sharingan, and after it. Those who had doubted his skill afterwards had learned quickly he could still kick their asses.

Fear. What would it be like? He had needed to cover his one sharingan in the past. What did this mean for his daily life? Could he handle it? What if he let everyone down? What if something went wrong during the transplant?

Anger. At himself. He knew beyond a doubt that Sakura could do this. He saw the proof of her brilliance every time he saw the Raikage, and soon every time he saw Sasuke. She replaced whole appendages from practically nothing. She could certainly do this.

At this, he noticed her give his hand a nearly bone crushing squeeze. His grip had been growing steadily harsher as his emotions had flashed through his mind and, unbeknownst to him, his eyes. Sakura was gazing at him with a mix of tenderness and exasperation as he pulled himself from his internal thought spiral. Bringing his attention back to her, he promptly ignored the next round of emotions: a sentimental and touched feeling that had been surfacing toward the Uchiha.

Instead, he locked his eyes on Sakura, laying his other hand over their already clasped ones. Sakura could see the hope, the hope he tried to keep hidden, shining in his gaze.  
_

She rolled her eyes, an action that Sasuke mirrored, though neither silver or pink head noticed.

She could tell his brain was running at a mile a minute. Truth be told, she knew he had struggled for a brief time after the war at the lack of his Sharingan. It had become so much a part of his identity that he was left questioning what made him special or powerful any longer. That after seeing him avoid any high ranking missions for 2 months straight, she had taken it upon herself to remind him of who he still was.

She hadn't just come out and stated that he was still powerful and one of the strongest ninja of the age though. Oh no. That would have been lost in favor of the stupid orange book he always had in front of his face. Instead she had conscripted Sai to use his lack of social awareness to goad Kakashi into a fight to test his limits now that he was just an 'average' shinobi (she knew full well he would never be 'average', with our without the doujutsu). She had described it as an experiment on human resilience, which seemed to have captured Sai's interest almost immediately.

He was not however, as socially inept as he had once been. Time as a member of team seven had seen to that. So, when she had been healing him after the ass-whooping that had been handed to him after he had backed Kakashi into a metaphorical corner, he had blatantly told her that she owed him a favor, and he would let her know when he was calling it in. She had agreed; it only seemed fair when Sai had suffered 5 broken ribs, a punctured lung, and He never had told her how he had goaded Kakashi into a fight but given how long it had taken to heal him, Sakura knew Sai had pushed Kakashi until the former was about to collapse. He had, however, expressed his great interest in her own concern over Kakashi and his mental health. Having known for himself that Kakashi was still one of the most powerful ninja of the village, Sai had been somewhat confused by the cause of her concern, and how this was supposed to help. He had noted the definite change in Kakashi's confidence following getting his ass handed to him by the Copy Nin, however, as well as Sakura's obvious relief when he had reported as much to her.

When she had visited Kakashi after healing Sai, he had been mostly injury free with only a few nicks. This had earned him the hard-plotted irate lecture from Sakura; just because he was the strongest naturally powered (no kyuubi) shinobi in the village did not mean he could beat up his teammates when they annoyed him (she saw the irony). He was vastly smarter than that and should have known to ignore Sai's socially inept ramblings and accusations.

 _Silly man._ She snorted.

"I daresay I can even make it so you can deactivate the sharingan when you're not using it, in favor of normal vision. I have several advantages over Rin-sama when she did your first transplant, including having studied Sasuke's natural Sharingan extensively the last few years."

"Hn."

Kakashi looked up to catch the eye of Sasuke. They communicated silently for a moment before Kakashi nodded. Sakura snorted as Sasuke merely looked bored and blinked.

That was the extent of their continued heart-to-heart, apparently.

"Men...baka...," she muttered, extricating her hands from Kakashi's. Gone was the fatiguebshe had been fighting since meeting with the Raikage. She stood and rolled up the scroll, resealing it. Walking away, she continued to mutter about "emotional constipation" and what sounded suspiciously like "dramatic Uchiha" as she pulled her own storage scroll from her hip pouch. She entered into what would be her room for the stay, the second from the largest.

She proceeded to a small circular table in the sizable room before releasing the storage seal on her own scroll. A number of items poofed into existence on the tabletop: several packs belonging to her, Kakashi, and Naruto, a small variety of weaponry for emergencies, and even more storage scrolls.

She had chosen to take Kakashi's bag with what little he packed for their journey, saying it would not be proper for the Hokage to carry his own pack. Kakashi had objected to someone else carrying his things until Sakura had snatched the pack from him, telling him to stop whining or she would make him arm wrestle her for it when he needed it. He had been silent after that, with the exception of a muttered "bossy woman" as he walked away.

The bright orange pack was of course Naruto's. She had figured if she didn't take it he would have forgotten it at least twice along the way. Mornings were not his strong suit, and she was just thankful Hinata had packed for the knucklehead.

Then of course was her own pack, a scroll filled with more spare weapons, scrolls with several med packs as well as a walking pharmacy, half her library of medical texts, and quite an extensive wardrobe, given the dual-nature of her job.

She unsealed one of the med packs with an application of her chakra and returned to the common room with the scroll and pack.

Kakashi knew that look in her eyes. He shrugged at the Uchiha and settled himself into his chosen armchair. The air about Sakura meant they should just let her do what she wanted until they were directed to do something by her, or until she passed out.

The Uchiha, also recognizing her current mood, plopped back on the length of the couch, not having energy to fight his obsessive teammate. Kakashi could feel the Uchiha's trembling chakra from where he sat. He really had gone a bit overboard trying to throw off his pursuers. It was surprising that he had been able to make it through the whole rendition of his recent travels and mission.

Soon the only noises in the room were the scribbles of Sakura (in a chart that looked suspiciously like the one Kakashi saw her with when she forced him into a checkup), Sasuke's soft breathing, and the occasional page flip from Kakashi. Occasionally she rose from her seat at the coffee table to stride over to Kakashi or sometimes Sasuke, and settle her glowing hand upon their temple for a few moments before she retreated back to her file and scribbled hurriedly.

Kakashi estimated it to be around one in the morning when he noticed a rather long pause in her scribbles. Looking up, he saw her staring with unseeing eyes at the papers in front of her. Sasuke had long since entered into a state of sleep that was strongly influenced by his chakra exhaustion, but also the security of having noticed two of the ANBU members having arrived to stand guard outside the door and on the balcony. It would have been a while since Sasuke could fully relax in his slumber, having been on his solo mission for most of the time since the war.

His mind made up, Kakashi quietly closed his beloved novel and walked to the beauty who still sat with pencil poised over his chart.

"Sak."

She jerked and gazed up at him blearily. Smiling to himself, he bent down and picked her up before carrying her to her bed. It was a testament to how tired she truly was that she neither protested his obvious insistence that she stop working, or that she could get to bed herself. Instead, her head lolled against his chest as she gave in with a deep breath.

Setting her on her bed, he sighed as he took in her exhausted and disheveled appearance. She had kicked off her boots hours ago amid her mad scribbling, but her medic pouch was still at her hip, her kunai pouch strapped to her thigh. Swift fingers divested her of both, but stilled at the slightly glowing hand that reached up to his temple once more.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to insist she stop and sleep, the glow flickered out. But her hand stayed there against his cheek, fingertips just brushing the hair above his ear.

He stared into the sea green jewels from where he was leaning over in front of her. In his effort to help her get some of her mission gear off for bed he was now paused so close to her. His amusement at her rather typical state of exhaustion faded from his eyes as they held one another's gaze, morphing into something even more gentle. Her own sleepy eyed gaze spoke easily of her own love and devotion to those precious to her, gladly running herself ragged to help a friend.

He was a wonderful man, her Kakashi. She could think of no one more deserving of her energies than he, and so she was glad to work until her brain could barely form coherent thoughts about the transplant process any longer. Having Sasuke here (and not objecting to her ministrations) as she planned out the transplant had been opportunity she could not afford to waste. Tomorrow she would practically have needed to tie both men down to get them to stay put long enough for her to finish her surgery plan. Now, she just needed to sort out one or two more details on paper, then she could go about securing a location and setting up for Kakashi's surgery. Once the space was ready, she would eat, sleep, and eat again upon waking before she gave Kakashi his Sharingan back, only better.

True to form though, her hokage had took it upon himself to bring her to bed when she had effectively finished for the night. It seemed this may be a new habit of his; making sure she was taken care of. He always had of course, even in the long-ago days where he truly was her sensei, but there was something different the last several weeks. She had never felt safer than she did on those nights that ended with him and his easy companionship.

As she held her palm against his cheek, she stared at the eyes - both of them - that she had come to know so well the last years since the war. After several moments, she blinked slowly before easing her eyes shut and her forehead to his. The slightest intake of breath from the man in front of her turned into a soft sigh as he rested his forehead to hers in return, before he pulled away from her. Before she could open her eyes, she felt warm, soft lips press gently into her forehead.

She hummed contentedly as he gently coaxed her to lie down. She sank into the soft pillows, not caring that she was still dirty from travel and wearing the same clothes as the blanket was pulled over her.

So at peace was she in this moment, that it did not register that what had pressed to her own forehead had not been cloth-covered.

The sun was barely peaking from behind the mountain-studded horizon when she stirred. She hadn't slept as long as might be hoped for someone who would be performing a surgery in the next 24 hours, but it had been a deep sleep.

Rolling out of bed, she grumbled at the state of herself. She really should have showered before starting her work last night, but when an idea took hold of her with the fervor that she experienced last night, she often found everything else forgotten. Shuffling to the pile of scrolls and packs to grab a set of clean clothes and her toiletries, she paused midway through her search to sniff at the heavenly aroma coming from the common area.

Poking her head out of her door, she was greeted with a glance from her Uchiha teammate. The Raikage must have had some staples delivered to their suite this morning. A basket of pastries and fruit was on the counter, coffee had just finished brewing, and Sakura imagined there were some items in the fridge now as well.

The silent Uchiha paused in pouring his own cup of coffee to reach into the cupboard for another, and poured her one as well. Uchiha Sasuke was by no means a wholly new man, but since his return after the war he had changed. At least to those who knew him best. Handing her the mug of dark fuel, he stood on the other side of the small counter from her in companionable, yet contemplative, silence.

She had learned over time to let him come to it in his own time, so she merely blew on the scalding liquid in her mug, taking small sips as soon as she deemed it wouldn't scald her tongue. She caught the muffin he tossed to her; he seemed to have eaten already this morning. She noticed another muffin wrapper and an apple core in the trash.

"You...," he paused, and seemed to rephrase. "Did you sleep well, Sakura?"

She was slightly surprised at his question, but hummed at him as she let out a short nod. After another sip, she merely responded, "why do you ask?"

There had to be a reason. He hadn't changed _that_ much.

"You were mumbling in your sleep this morning." He let out a soft chuckle. "Well, complaining more like. Something about Genma not being helpful."

Her outward demeanor did not change. She would not let it. But she hoped that's all she had mumbled. Instead she gave her best scoff, "Imagine, the perpetual ladies' man not being helpful. I must have been reliving his last checkup. Between distracting half of my nurses and constantly walking around with a sharp object in his mouth, I don't know that I have ever described him as a 'helpful' patient."

"Hn."

Thankfully, she recognized that tone of 'hn' as one of disinterest. Perhaps that hadn't been the smoothest lie in the world, but he seemed to no longer care. If she were a lesser shinobi, she may have given away the slight lie (that was pretty typical behavior for Genma) in the tension of her eyes, but her cover-up was well practiced as she took another sip of coffee.

"So you'll do the surgery today?"

"Mmm, I should be able to, but I should really rest and regain a little more of my chakra before, so likely early this afternoon. I figured after breakfast," she sniffed and wrinkled her nose, "and a much-needed shower, I would ready Kakashi's room for the procedure, grab a few supplies, and then perhaps take a nap."

"A nap?" A deep voice added as their once-sensei came round the corner from his room. "If that's what the doctor orders, I think I can manage to take a nap today."

Two pairs of eyes rolled at the man.

"Please feel free to, Haruno-san," said a fourth voice. The ANBU captain had appeared behind Kakashi as he entered. "We will need that time to set up the perimeter and agree upon contingency plans with our hosts."

"ANBU-san," Kakashi sighed, "has already been briefed on the developments. Rather earlier than I would have liked to have done said briefing, in fact."

The man behind the porcelain mask ignored the grumpy comments from his hokage. He had needed to bring Kakashi up to speed on the group of roaming rogue nin, but his subordinates had informed him of what they had overheard after they arrived last night as well, which made the ANBU captain more eager to discuss the issues at hand. They had their own preparations to make for their hokage's safety, after all. "Did you say you'll be using this area as his surgical site, Haruno-san?"

"Mhm. I figured it would be easiest to do it here since you've already secured the perimeter and it's been monitored for some time prior to our arrival," she provided.

"Maa, Sakura," whined her Hokage, "What kind of surgery is this? Are you going to lay me out on the kitchen table like some piece of meat you want to cut into?"

"I have a hard time believing you wouldn't enjoy being treated like a piece of meat, Kakashi," she heard a soft snort from Sasuke before she continued, "but I will be setting up your room for your surgery. I brought everything we should need in one of my med packs."

"You did?"

"Mmm," she hummed her response. "Since we're setting up some clinics along the way after the summit I have practically a hospital in my bags in case we encounter any severe cases that I need to treat immediately."

"That's good, Sakura," Sasuke interjected from behind her. She resisted rolling her eyes before he continued, "The fewer people that know about this the better. Not needing to use local facilities is best if I'm going to keep up the ruse that I'm still traveling in Suna and in sole possession of the catalog."

"You're leaving then?" Kakashi asked quietly.

"Hn."

"When?"

"Now."

Sakura's eyes flew to her dark haired teammate. "But you just got here. Naruto-"

"It's for the best, Sakura. In order for you to not have to worry about an attack while Kakashi is recovering, I should go and make them certain I'm still in Suna. Naruto will understand."

"Sasuke, I'm sure we would-," Sakura stopped when she felt the familiar weight of Kakashi's hand settle on her shoulder.

"Kakashi will need time to adjust Sakura. I'm trying to make sure to give you that."

Knowing he was right, Sakura let her further words of protest die in her throat and relaxed under the gentle squeeze of Kakashi's hand. Moments later, she ran out of the kitchen and into her room. When she came back a minute later with a small pack and held it out for Sasuke, she snorted at the slightly raised eyebrow the Uchiha presented her with. "A new batch of food pills - don't look at me like that. I'll make them taste better when I have some free time, and I don't see a lot of that on my calendar at the moment. You know they're effective, and I can tell you hadn't eaten more than soldier pills for at least three days when I was checking you last night. Use these. Don't argue with your medic."

"Hn," he said, eyebrow still raised.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at her stubborn friend, and crossed her arms. After another minute of glare meeting skepticism, Sasuke blinked and tucked the small pouch into a pocket of his shinobi pants. Taking that as a sign that he would keep them on his person and actually use them, she strode forward and latched her arms around his waist.

"We still need to talk about your arm," she muttered against his chest, eyes closed. It was rare that he let her hug him.

"Hn. Next time we will do more than just talk about it."

As he released her she looked up at him and gave him a dazzling smile...which turned into a tender smirk as he poked her forehead.

"Tell the Dobe I'll see him soon. Kakashi? A word?"

She saw Kakashi nod in acquiescence and follow Sasuke into his own chambers. She rubbed the spot on her forehead where Sasuke had poked her. He had taken that gesture up after the war, having had his brother's relationship with him redefined after fighting Kabuto in that cave; it no longer held a painful significance, but rather a tender one. She had been a recipient of it a number of times and had seen him even do it to Naruto, particularly when the blond was whining about Sasuke's departure and acting like a child. It calmed both to have Sasuke express his feelings that way; while he had expressed himself verbally upon occasion, such as the previous night, he was always uncomfortable and a bit awkward doing so. This action always came from his heart and didn't require him to battle his emotional constipation; it just happened.

As she dug into her muffin and sipped on her now drinkable coffee, her mind wandered back to the miracle at hand. She would be giving Kakashi the sharingan back. And not just one, but two.

 _It's too bad though..._ she thought to herself, thinking of the . _I really rather like his eyes now._


	15. Chapter 15

Kakashi smirks as he follows Sasuke into his own chambers. It was just like his former student to continue on without thought for propriety, inviting himself to use Kakashi's rooms. Not that Kakashi minded. If Sasuke had bothered to ask, Kakashi would have proceeded into the room without answering anyway. Nevertheless, it was just like Sasuke to ignore social norms.

He followed Sasuke to stand in front of the large window overlooking the city. From here, much of the surrounding area was visible. To their left was a door out onto a small private balcony which Kakashi was sure he would never get a chance to use. Kakashi stood next to Sasuke with his hands in his pockets and his horrible posture, but didn't deem to say anything. The Uchiha had asked to speak to him, not the other way around.

After a few moments, Sasuke decided what he had wanted to say, or rather, how he wanted to say it.

"What you have been given is very precious to me."

This didn't make sense to Kakashi, so he continued to stare out at the village of Kumo. He knew Sasuke was not speaking about the gift of Fugaku's eyes. While certainly a gift unlike anything the Uchiha had ever given before, the tone of his broody companion told him that the issue at hand was something else. Again, he knew that eventually Sasuke would make his purpose in privately speaking to Kakashi known.

Sasuke was aware that Kakashi wasn't certain what he was referring to. That was why he was here in the first place. He was going to make his feelings, his desire to protect clear to the Copy Nin.

After a moment of silence to be sure he still held his hokage's attention, he continued.

"When I received it, I did not treat it with the reverence and care that I should have. I was given many chances to do so, but by the time I realized, it was no longer mine."

Glancing to the side, he saw Kakashi now watching him out of the corner of his eye, still unmoving and waiting for Sasuke to make his intent known. Smirking inwardly, Sasuke continued.

"It's not mine in that way any longer, but I would still defend it. Even from you. Treat it with the same care that she would treat yours with."

At that, Kakashi did actually turn his head to Sasuke. The Uchiha smirked as he recognized the shocked look behind those lazy charcoal eyes. The difference wouldn't be noticeable but to someone who knew Kakashi well enough, but to Sasuke, who was a master of the impassive face as well as having known Kakashi well for some years now, it was as clear as if Kakashi's jaw had been hanging open.

He had known this was not an avenue that Kakashi had fully thought through, for all his touted genius. His past had seen to that. While Team 7 had weaseled their way under Kakashi's skin to become his family, there was a difference between the love all members of Team 7 held for one another and what Sasuke had been noticing between Kakashi and Sakura for the last several times he had visited.

The way the Copy Nin looked at Sakura held a warmth that simply was not there for he or Naruto. It was the same warmth that he imagined could be seen in his own eyes when looking at Sakura not too long ago. But his time had passed with her. He had betrayed her too many times for her heart to trust him in that way, and though she loved him dearly, she could never love him like that again, and he understood. It had taken time, but he had come to care for her more like an older brother, though he was technically younger.

Thus, as a proper protector, he was going to do what he could to ensure her happiness, and that meant a push was needed for both of them. Sakura would hesitate. She would not want to risk the respect of her hokage, or the dynamic of Team 7, regardless of the fact that they no longer went out on missions together. Naruto normally wrangled them all whenever humanly possible anyway, and there was no hiding from your hokage, especially as the best medic known to the ninja world.

Kakashi, well he was Kakashi. When he finally got around to it, which could be years from now, Kakashi might be too late as well. He was aware of Sakura, but to Sasuke's knowledge, Kakashi had never been in a true relationship, let alone been able to express his feelings openly. Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if the genius hokage hadn't even admitted to himself what his feelings were. He probably thought himself as a dirty old man, or undeserving of such feelings. Lastly, he would likely talk himself out of taking the risk, protecting himself from the heartbreak of rejection and a new kind of loss.

Thus, Sasuke would provide the push that was needed, before he grew old with waiting.

He wanted her to be happy, even if it could no longer be with him.

So as he saw the wheels turning in Kakashi's head, processing exactly what he his words had meant, and what they implied of Sakura's feelings, Sasuke allowed the smirk to show on his face. He was rewarded with the raising of silver eyebrows in further shock, before he disappeared into thin air, leaving to continue his mission.

Kakashi sat in shock for several minutes processing everything that had been contained in and behind the five sentences his former student had uttered. He had always been an observant individual; what else would you expect from an Uchiha. But he had followed his observations further than Kakashi had himself.

It would seem that the former avenger had noticed the attention Kakashi found himself giving to his pinkette, however discreetly he thought he had been doing so. What's more, Sasuke seemed to think that it was not just the sad dreams of a lonely old man; he was under the impression that Sakura might feel the same. He had stated that 'it' was no longer his, and he had not given it the care it deserved to be handled with.

And her heart was precious. She wore it on her sleeve, and because of this it was often jostled and bruised. None had hurt it more than Sasuke had, truth be told. She had remained lost in her love for him for nearly a decade. Kakashi recalled a time after the war when he had seen them out and about several times, without the boisterous blond that would have normally been present. But that had stopped suddenly and had not happened since. True, Sasuke was rarely even in the village, but Sakura had not once asked when her dark-haired teammate would be home; that was always Naruto. She was without a doubt close to Sasuke and cared deeply for the Uchiha, but gone was the near obsession with him, now that Kakashi considered it.

But did this mean she had given it to someone else? Let alone him?

She worked herself to the bone, and unblinkingly threw her chakra and own health to the wayside to heal him. She would do it again for him with this surgery he imagined. He hadn't bothered to ask because he knew she wouldn't admit it regardless. She gave too much of herself to anyone that might be in need. Could there be more behind it?

She wasn't sure what her two teammates would be talking about, but quickly decided that if she needed to know, she could get it out of Kakashi later. He was going to be at her mercy for the next 36 hours anyway. Finishing her muffin, she tossed the wrapper in the trash and refilled her coffee before heading to take a shower.

By the time she was done scalding her skin into a shade that clashed horribly with her hair, she felt like a new woman. Her coffee was cold once again, but she tossed it back and headed to the kitchen to set her cup in the sink. The common rooms were empty, but she could feel the presence of two ANBU in one of the adjoining rooms, likely sleeping after a shift change while she was getting cleaned up.

Scanning the residence, she found Kakashi's chakra to be in his room, and was not surprised to enter it and find him lounging about on his bed with his orange book in his hand. She approached, carrying a pristine white storage scroll, and waved at him not to bother moving. He was watching her but did not ask what she was doing, preferring to be lazy and wait to see she imagined.

Spreading the white scroll across the side of the bed he was not occupying, Kakashi watched as she carefully selected from a variety of seals contained there. She hadn't been lying when she had said she had practically an entire hospital room with her. Several monitors, trays, and instruments poofed into existence around her.

Satisfied when she had summoned all she would need, she set about putting it all to sorts where she could reach it during surgery. She wouldn't have anyone to assist today, but that was not something she was concerned about. She had needed to perform much messier, emergency procedures during the war with much less of the necessities and zero ability to prepare. This would be a cake walk.

"You weren't joking."

She smiled as she looked up at her patient, who was eyeing her setup, but said nothing as she continued to arrange her space. She could feel his eyes on her as she worked, but paid them no mind. She was focused and running through the surgical process as she arranged, ensuring she had everything that she could possibly require. Once she was satisfied, she straightened and brushed her hands across her skirt in finality.

She looked up to meet the raised eyebrow of Kakashi.

"Don't touch this," she stated unnecessarily.

She took his silence for consent before shoo-ing him from the side of the bed he was on. He had set down his book as he had watched her work, and she picked it up to hold out to him while he stretched.

"Perhaps you should go out on the balcony with this. It might be a couple days before you are up to reading, and actually have any time to."

He appeared surprised at her recommendation. It wasn't often that she actually told him to read his smut novels. She ignored the shift of his mask that meant he was grinning at her before she turned to walk back to the common area.

"I'm going to eat and take a nap. I'll begin your surgery at 2 PM, unless you have any objections."

Kakashi was still grinning behind his mask at her insistence that he read his beloved novel. Truth be told, he hadn't been reading it when she came in. He was still contemplating the implications of his 'conversation' with Sasuke, but hadn't wanted it to raise Sakura's suspicions to find him staring off in thought. The book was an easy scape goat.

"If that's what the doctor recommends!" He chimed, his cheery tone making her roll her eyes.

Instead of following all of her directions, though, he followed her into the common area, and plopped into an armchair where he could see her as she puttered around the kitchenette.

He pretended to read, flipping pages now and again as he eyed her discreetly from across the large room. He watched as she prepared tea and set about pulling out several dishes from the refrigerator. It had been stocked with onigiri, skewers of grilled meat, and a variety of raw ingredients. She set several of the rice balls on a plate, and put the plate onto a tray. She added the prepared tea and some teacups to the tray before joining Kakashi in the sitting area.

He smiled at her with amusement clear in his eyes as he saw how many rice balls she had brought. It was more than enough for him to partake too, but he knew they were almost all for her. Sakura could pack away the food like no person her size should be able to. It was a product of her seal that she could put away as much as she did, and this wasn't the first time he had seen her load up before a surgery. He was simply glad she was fueling herself before hand.

When she poured him a cup of tea, he accepted it with a grateful nod, but declined to partake in the onigiri. If she left some he would eat them, but otherwise he could grab some from the refrigerator as well.

As she sat sipping her tea and inhaling her snack, Kakashi stole glances while she was studying her notes for the surgery. Once she had finished eating, her nerves seemed to get the better of her, as she fidgeted constantly, changing the way she was sitting and laying. Kakashi didn't mind this normally irritating habit however. Her continual change in position from lying across the couch on her stomach, her back, upside down off the front of the couch, or on the floor with her feet up provided him with ample opportunity to admire her firm backside and the slender curve between her neck and shoulder.

The former had his attention for several moments before he realized that she had not moved in some time. When he tore his eyes from the hem of her tiny shorts, he saw she had closed her eyes and was breathing quietly. Whether she had fallen asleep due to actually being that tired, or had made the conscious decision to do so, he was glad she was resting.

After considering for a few moments, he got up and retrieved a blanket from one of nearby arm chairs. Gently laying the blanket over her sleeping form, he paused for a moment to brush her hair out of her face.

Smiling to himself, he strolled back to the spot he had vacated to actually read for a bit while she slept. Funny how when she woke up four hours later to get ready for the surgery, he hadn't turned a single page.

The surgery had gone well. It had taken 2 hours longer than she had initially anticipated, but it had been textbook. If such a thing had ever been in a text book, it would have gone that way, anyway. That was the price you paid for being the best and pioneering a new technique. Not to mention one you hoped would never be needed or performed again. She couldn't imagine a situation in which she would want an Uchiha's eyes to be transplanted into someone else.

Kakashi's original Sharingan had been freely given by Obito as a child; a present to Kakashi when all had thought Obito had been about to die. The fact that Obito hadn't actually died and had spent many years as an enemy of Konoha didn't count. It had been freely given. The only other transplant she had ever heard of was Danzo, and that had been one of the most heinous acts she had ever heard of.

A gentle sniffing at her side announced the presence of Bull and Pakun. Kakashi had summoned all his ninken just in case once they had gotten him ready for the surgery. Since he would be out cold, he wanted to have a final layer of protection for him, and more importantly, Sakura.

The dogs had been oddly silent throughout the surgery. She assumed they could smell her stress. Her fear of 'what if something goes wrong'. She knew nothing would of course. She had prepared. She knew what she was doing. And Kakashi's eyes from Naruto had been pristine. She had been checking them for years and there was never an issue. She knew his eyes so well. Most people would call them gray. She had seen them so many times and so close that she could tell where the small flecks of blue and black were. She knew his eyes.

"Ya' did good kid," the smaller of the two said from his perch on top of Bull's head. While the ninken had been quiet, she had been aware of their presence and attention. Pakkun in particular had paid her ministrations close attention from his post on Bull.

She smiled at the ninken as she brushed the nonexistent hair from Kakashi's face. She had gone through, cleaned and stored the various medical supplies and was now sitting and running a few last diagnostics on her work while she waited for him to wake.

"It'll really mean a lot to him. I'm still surprised that the Uchiha kid did that."

"Boss is gonna be surprised," Bull murmured in agreement.

"I hope he likes it. It took longer than I thought," she whispered back with heavy eyes.

Pakkun watched her for a moment more before responding. "Rest a bit, Pink. You used up a lot of chakra for that. We'll wake you if anything changes."

"Mmmhmmm. Thanks guys."

She was asleep before he had finished putting her head down on her arm, facing Kakashi as she drifted off.

It was dark, but he could see light around the edges of the curtains. Sakura had obviously drawn them so as not to hurt his sensitive eyes. He could tell from the faint glow of pinks and oranges that it was sunset; he'd been out for likely 7 hours or thereabouts. He hadn't thought it would take so long. He looked away from the slivers of light, feeling his eyes burn slightly in discomfort.

His attention was now attracted by the hot huff of breath from on top of his chest. The warmth there was suddenly gone, and he felt the bed shift as Pakkun came into his line of sight.

"Hey Boss. Feelin' okay?"

"Aa," was all Kakashi deigned to respond with.

"Good. She's kind of passed out. I'm not sure we could wake her up if you weren't," he looked behind him toward Kakashi's waist. "She's all out of chakra. I don't know if she's going to be up any time soon."

As he moved away, presumably to let the other ninken and the ANBU know that he was awake and feeling well, Kakashi caught sight of a pink more vibrant to his eyes than that of the sunset peeking through the curtains. She was asleep in a chair by his bedside, obviously having fallen asleep where she sat.

He brushed back the hair from where it lay sprawled across her face. He was gentle just in case, but she didn't move. She hadn't said it would cost her this much chakra. He had known it would be an intensive surgery - Sakura would never give it less than 100%, and he was certain she had come up with some brilliant way to do ensure he could deactivate the Sharingan at will; she had said she would, so he was sure she had.

Come to think of it, the sight he was seeing with was not that of the Sharingan, or at least what he remembered it being like. Things were actually a little blurrier than his own eyes had been, but that could be a temporary result of the surgery. Perhaps Fugaku's eyes had not been as strong as Obito's. But no. That wasn't likely. Both Itachi and Sasuke had remarkably powerful eyes. Surely Fugaku's had been strong as well. She must have been successful in enabling him to turn off his eyes.

Deciding he would wait until Sakura told him he could (he would surely risk her wrath if he did so without her go-ahead, and in his current state he wasn't sure if he could out run her) he decided he would get some more rest.

His hand drifted to hers as he closed his eyes to go back to sleep, wondering at the brilliant woman next to him.

When next he woke, it was to the soft brushing of a thumb over his knuckles. Opening his eyes, they fell upon his hand intertwined with Sakura's. She was smiling at him from her spot on her arm as he had last seen her. She appeared to have just woken up.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, squeezing his hand slightly. It was quieter than normal, but her medic voice was on. Kakashi suspected that it would reach it's normal tone shortly; she wasn't one to laze about when a patient might be in need.

"Maah, Sakura," Kakashi said in a tone that was whinier than he would ever admit could come from his mouth. He saw the concern blossom in her face before deciding to push forward. "I need your help." She sat up, summoning her chakra to her hands as he said, "I had to stop reading at my favorite part of Icha Icha, and I need you to read the last couple pages for me. I can't leave it like this."

The slight pound on his chest that knocked the wind out of him was worth it. She had turned a shade the sunset would be proud of.

"Baka-shi!"

At the racket, the door was pushed open and Pakkun trotted into the room, followed by Shikamaru.

The look on his face said 'troublesome' as he surveyed the brilliant shade of red that Sakura had adopted and the eye crinkle of Kakashi that meant he was probably grinning like a fool behind his mask.

"Hokage-sama - "

"Maah, Shikamaru, we've talked about this. It's just Sakura. Don't call me that unless you have to. My delicate demeanor can't handle the pressure."

Next to him Sakura snorted as she summoned her healing chakra again to presumably run a diagnostic. Shikamaru merely stared back, unimpressed by his hokage's antics.

Kakashi closed his eyes as Sakura's hands approached his face and let her soothing chakra wash over him.

Shikamaru didn't say anything until Sakura had removed her hands. "So?" He asked, though he was quite certain things had gone well enough. He had checked in on the pair several times throughout the surgery and Sakura had been calm and intent while she tended to the sedated Copy Nin. The dogs too had been unconcerned with the goings on, and so he had come to the conclusion all was well.

"Everything looks good," she said to both men. She paused a moment before she started to lose the battle to hide her grin. "Kakashi, would you like to see?"

Nodding, Kakashi sat up as Sakura instructed Shikamaru to open the curtains slightly. The sun had gone down further and the room was filled with a soft glow as Shikamaru did as requested. The light didn't hurt his eyes this time, and he looked to Sakura.

"Can you activate your Sharingan? It should feel similar to when you changed to the mangekyo, but try not to use as much chakra. At least that's what it seems like when Sasuke activated his."

He nodded as her hand came up to his temple again, aglow with her chakra. She closed her eyes as she waited for him to push the necessary chakra to his eyes. He tried but nothing happened.

"Almost. Just a little more. The first time might be a little harder than subsequent times," she coached, obviously monitoring his attempt to activate his eyes.

He did as told by the pinkette and tried again with a little more chakra behind it.

Instantly, the little bit of blur that was left vanished and everything came into the sharp definition of the Sharingan he remembered. Every movement from the 3 beings in the room was more pronounced, and he could see the flow of their chakra. This is when it became clear to him that Sakura's chakra was still alarmingly low; lower than he would have expected. She still had her seal intact, but he didn't think she would exhaust herself quite so much.

He frowned at her. "What happened?"

She gave him a confused look in response, "is something wrong?" The look on her face changed to a worried one. " Is it not working?"

"The eyes are fine. I can see your chakra levels. I could tell it was low before but now I can see exactly how low. Did something go wrong during surgery?"

Relaxing a bit, she let her hand drift from his temple to his cheek. "I'm fine, Kakashi. Adjusting the seals just took a little more chakra than I had calculated."

"Adjusting the seals?"

"Mmm. You can see later," she said as she dropped her hand from his face and dismissed him, turning instead to Shikamaru. "Can we get that udon you mentioned now? He needs to eat. One order,...no, two to be safe."

"Get four orders, please, Shikamaru," Kakashi interjected, with a stern look at Sakura.

Sakura raised an elegant pink brow at him. "Are you that hungry?"

"No but I'm not eating unless you eat too. You're exhausted. So you can eat with me."

The pinkette rolled her eyes but didn't get a chance to say anything as Shikamaru turned and headed out of the room, a clear "troublesome" uttered as he left.

By the time Shikamaru had returned, Kakashi had coaxed Sakura into sitting on the bed in front of him while she ran a few more diagnostics with him. She had not told him strictly not to activate the Mangekyō until she told him he could, and that wouldn't be for several days yet. She hadn't bothered to really tell him much about what she had done or why she was so out of chakra yet.

Instead they had run through several of the basic functions of the Sharingan, as well as a few exercises to make sure his chakra system overall was still functioning normally. Sakura had finally given over when, to prove he was just fine, Kakashi demonstrated his unchanged control over his chakra by emitting a small shock when she reached for his chest to run another test (it was much smaller than those he used when he was bored in meetings...he didn't have a death wish after all).

He had also timed the incident perfectly with the arrival of Shikamaru and their dinner, which distracted Sakura thoroughly enough. The silver head had been right to think Sakura needed food; she was famished. As Shakura demolished her two orders of udon, plus most of two orders of shumai that had been sent along for the esteemed guests of the raikage, Kakashi wondered after the young woman who could heal just about anything, and would do so to within an inch of her own life without hesitation. She truly was a marvel.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: Hey loves. No, I'm not dead. Just hitting a writer's wall! Thank you to my new followers/favorites, and to those who took the time to review. Hearing your reactions via review or PM help to energize me to write more. Life happens and I'm trying not to abandon this fic, but I'm not super sure how many people are still interested in reading. Drop me a message or a review if you would be so kind and let me know. It really means a lot, and like I said, energizes me. I have other ideas for one/two shots, an ItaSaku, and a possible OC, but I'll honestly say I don't want to write for just me.**

 **This is just a short one, but I wanted to push something out to you guys for now.**

 **Love and hugs to all you readers and especially the reviewers!**

After their dinner, Sakura checked Kakashi's regular eyes over. There was still a slight blur to them that he was worried about. It was going to get in the way of his Icha Icha, after all, and his time with the beloved books was already shorter than he would like it to be.

"Maah, Sakura. If this doesn't get better you're going to have to read chapter seven to me as a bed time story," he whined. He had long felt Shikamaru leave the residence for his own, and the ANBU had changed shifts and were either sleeping or standing guard around the residences and building. Had any of them still been around to hear the whining of their hokage, he wouldn't have played it up quite as much as he did.

As it was Sakura rolled her eyes at him with a smirk. "Chapter seven? The one with the bar maid? Come on, Kakashi. Chapter 19 is easily better than that."

Kakashi choked on his own spit.

"Besides," she continued as she lifted her glowing hands to his eyes and sending a small pulse of chakra through him, "this should do it. There was a little more residua swelling."

When he had recovered his composure, he pretended to squint at her face and waved his book in her direction where she still sat. She was sure there was a shit eating grin on his face behind his mask, but she pretended to be bored by where the conversation had gone. She fought down her blush admirably, realizing she had been flirting with her hokage.

When she had a moment to recover from her thoughts, she looked up at Kakashi. She wasn't ready for the look she caught in his charcoal eyes. They sat for a moment and she wondered at how good of a job she had done with the adjustment of the seal.

Realizing she hadn't told him yet, she stood up and beamed at him as she held out her hand to him. He looked slightly bemused, but was willing to play along apparently, as he let her haul him to his feet. She pulled him to his bathroom and flipped on the lights. He squinted slightly at the brightness, but since she had no concerns, he adjusted after a moment and didn't complain.

She hauled him to stand in front of the vanity and turned him to look at himself in the mirror. He looked at her through the reflection, and she could tell he was amused by the grin on her face.

When she just stared at his eyes, he seemed to take the hint and looked into the mirror to examine his new eyes. He didn't seem to notice anything for a moment.

As he looked at himself, he wondered for a moment at what she could be so pleased with. Everything seemed normal to him; if he didn't know any better, he would say nothing had even happened to his eyes.

It was then that he realized what he was looking at. His own eyes widened in realization. They were HIS eyes staring back at him. Not those of Fugaku. His own, charcoal eyes that he had needed to get used to seeing both of for the past few years since the war and Naruto's gift. He watched his reflection as he leaned forward slightly.

"...how...?"

Sakura grinned at him in the mirror as he just stared at her.

He knew he had Fugaku's eyes. He had activated the Sharingan already. It even felt slightly different than he remembered. Almost like he was only just tapping into the power of Fugaku's eyes. And perhaps he was. Fugaku was clan head, after all. Obito had been a branch family member. His eyes had not been the most powerful of his clan; they were not weak but that was part of the mystique of the legendary Uchiha clan. Their power was immense.

"In my research, back before the war...I had been researching for you and Sasuke-kun...how to prevent the blindness and deterioration permanently." She blushed and looked away from his intense gaze. "After the war, for a while I didn't do much on it."

"Understandable," Kakashi prompted. After all, he had lost the Sharingan and Sasuke had the Eternal Mangekyo, so blindness was not in the Uchiha's future.

"But then back when Sasuke came back and started becoming a part of the village again, I thought about his children..."

Kakashi's stomach knotted. It probably started as a concern for her possible children. After all, Sasuke had been the love of her life, once upon a time. It was clear now that this wasn't something they were pursuing now, but Kakashi didn't really know why. Sasuke had given Kakashi his blessing, though not in so many words, but it made it pretty clear that they were no longer romantically involved, nor did they have the intention to be.

...or at least Sasuke didn't have those intentions. He seemed to be under the impression that he wasn't the keeper of her heart any longer, but was he certain? More importantly, how could Kakashi be certain? Why was Sasuke under the impression that Sakura's heart was now Kakashi's to care for?

Kakashi pulled himself out of his own thoughts as Sakura continued her own.

"And so I've spent the last couple of years researching and theorizing how to prevent the damage. Of course, it's always something that could have future Uchiha's trade eyes to get the Eternal Mangekyo, but the assumes multiple Uchiha's that have achieved that level, and a competent medic. I wanted do something that wasn't so dependent upon multiple uncontrollable variables, and -"

"- Sakura..." Kakashi interjected. He was usually in awe of her medical genius, being one of the only things he had never developed the aptitude for, but right now, he wanted to know what was going on with his (or Fugaku's) eyes.

"Sorry, Kakashi," she said, looking a little sheepish, likely knowing she had gotten carried away. "Anyway, it's a seal. The concept is similar to my own seal," she pointed to the diamond on her forehead, "except you don't need to do anything with it, or direct chakra to it and such. It's almost acting like a sink."

Kakashi raised his eyebrow at her before she continued.

"You can turn the faucet on to allow chakra to flow through at various rates as needed; more or less depending on the situation or the aspect of the Sharingan you're using. What chakra gets used ends up going through the drain and out. But, if your chakra overwhelms the eyes, which is what causes the damage over time, the seal has built in a mechanism, kind of like the overflow holes in the sink. Except instead of routing the chakra to the drain, your seals send it back into your chakra network!"

She was beaming. He was floored. The ingenuity of his pink haired obsession was surprising even to him, who knew how much she was capable of. She had accomplished that which the Uchiha clan had never been able to do without taking the eyes of another, usually by force since they could never seem to think through things logically.

He crinkled his eyes at her through the mirror and he saw her cheeks turn a faint shade of pink.

When he looked back at his eyes after a moment, he was reminded once again that they were his eyes. He touched his reflection, "But why are they still my eyes?"

He saw her beam again from the corner of his eye. When he looked to her, she rubbed the back of her neck in an oddly familiar way.

"Oh, that's just the presentation of the seal. Just like my seal," she said touching the diamond on her forehead, "it has a physical manifestation. In this case, I rewrote the seal to change it to look like your eyes. I could change mine if I wanted...I didn't know enough about fuinjutsu when I started training with Shishou, but I could now. But I like it the way..."

She came to stop in her rambling as Kakashi reached out to swipe his thumb over the diamond on Sakura's forehead. She blushed as he looked into her eyes instead, holding her gaze for what seemed like an eternity before he dropped his hand away.

He was amazed by this woman, yet again.

No wonder she was so low on chakra. To have performed two such seals, and to have put int he detailed work of cloning his eyes' appearance. She had truly dedicated herself to the task, just as she always did when helping another.

Unbidden, Sasuke's words replayed in his mind.

 _"When I received it, I did not treat it with the reverence and care that I should have. I was given many chances to do so, but by the time I realized, it was no longer mine...but I would still defend it. Even from you. Treat it with the same care that she would treat yours with."_

Kakashi wasn't sure how this had happened, and he certainly wasn't certain that he deserved such a treasure, but if Sasuke was indeed correct, he would do his best to keep it safe.

For what seemed like the hundredth time in the last day, emotions swirled within Kakashi; emotions that he had not had great experience with. He had blocked out any emotion at all for many years following the supposed death of Obito, and the true deaths of Rin, Minato, and Kushina. The Fourth Ninja war had brought about hard-learned healing for Kakashi, what with his time with his father during the Pein attack, and the reconciling between he and Obito.

True, his frozen heart had thawed when he became the sensei of Team 7, but his turning point had truly not been until after the war; after he had gotten time to truly think on and grieve for his friend. And being Rokudaime, with endless boring meetings, had provided much time for introspection...when he wasn't practicing his jutsu anyway.

With the maelstrom of emotions and the image of the beautiful woman in front of him, eyes shining with pride and excitement in front of him, he could not help but feel overwhelmed. He felt his eyes burn uncontrollably and he blinked to clear them.

As if in slow motion, he saw his field of vision clear as he opened his eyes again, sharper than it had been moments before. He started to wonder at the clarity of every strand of pink hair in front of him, before the same clarity, as well as all light slowly faded from his view.

As he felt his body relax outside of his control, he realized what had just happened on it's own accord and why his vision had sharpened so drastically. He had one final thought before his consciousness ceased.

 _She might murder me in my sleep..._

She had been marveling at the emotion in Kakashi's eyes. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The tenderness there was not new, but never had it been so pronounced.

Those gray eyes felt like they were looking into her soul and she couldn't help but stare back, happy that she could achieve such a feat for Kakashi.

And as she stared, she watched in fascination as the charcoal turned into the deepest red before growing more vibrant. Before she had time to react, Kakashi blinked harshly. As he opened his eyes, she saw the tomoes morph into simple circles and the pinwheel blades extend from his black pupils.

As she registered the form of Fugaku's - Kakashi's - new Mangekyō Sharingan, she had just enough time to realize what was happening before Kakashi's body went slack.

Not being the first time one of her teammates had passed out in front of her, though they would all surely deny it having ever been them, while simultaneously pointing their fingers at one another, she was able to catch the collapsing Copy Nin before he hit the floor, or the counter, with his head. That would be all she needed; to heal a head injury.

Pushing what little chakra she had been recovering to her legs to bolster her tired body, she hoisted Kakashi to his bed before laying him down on top of the covers.

Looking at the undoubtedly uncomfortable position he had landed in with his neck, she thought out loud "I should leave him there. Serves him right, activating his Mangekyo after I told him not to."

But knowing he was going to have to sit through hours of meetings tomorrow with the other kages, she took pity and adjusted his pillows and head to something more supported and less resembling a contortionist.

For a moment, her hands hovered over his cheek, before she decided to check the damage he done to his eyes. Knowing she could not remain standing much longer, she made her way around to the other side of the bed before realizing he was just a little too far away now. So, huffing as she cursed him for making her recheck his eyes, she clambered to sit cross-legged at a slight angle next to him.

Pushing a few rebellious silver hairs back to their gravity defying fellows and away from his temples, she wondered at the softness of the spikey mop before setting to her task. It became apparent relatively quickly that her seals and chakra regulation and recycling system had been successful, as she found no damage, nor any chakra burns to the optical nerves.

Feeling relieved that Baka-shi had not undone any of her hard work so early on, she was a bit too absorbed in retracing the recycling network she had laid to be sure it was still entirely stable. She was too absorbed to notice until it was too late, that her center of gravity had been removed. She was too absorbed to really notice slowly narrowing field of vision. She was too absorbed to think to herself _"I might have over done it."_

But she was not too absorbed to inwardly consider how far would be appropriate to send her hokage flying when she woke up, since she was going to have one hell of a chakra exhaustion-induced migraine when she woke up.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Ano..." came a loud complaint from the doorway of the suite. "But where's Sakura-chan? I haven't seen her in forever! Kaka-sensei will be reading his porn, but Sakura-Chan will want to have some breakfast ramen with me, dattebayo!"

A single eyebrow arched up in response to the blond's claim.

"Okay, so she might not, but I bet she'll still, come..." Naruto muttered. Deciding the Nara was going to find it easier to take no part of Naruto's 'troublesome' mission to have breakfast with Sakura, the blond spiky-haired head leaned to the side to see around Shikamaru's hair. "SAKURAAA-CHAAAAAANNNNN!"

Growling softly, Bull padded sleepily over to the slightly ajar door between Kakashi's quarters and the common rooms. As he plopped back down, causing the unlatched door to close the remaining inch and click shut, a huff of air escaped him as he turned into a rather weighty, toothy, slobbery blockade. Hearing Akino and Bisuke growl on the other side of the door, advancing to quiet the boisterous Naruto, the blockade snorted in satisfaction as the yelling cut off.

The lazy genius at the door in turn muttered something about late night planning that had taken place, and started to discuss a particular section of a trade agreement that Sakura and Kakashi had been working on. No more than 10 seconds into the fictitious, but nevertheless uninteresting explanation, the blond could be heard to retreat down the hall to the elevator, exclaiming it was too early to try to "decipher Shikamaru's political mumbo jumbo."

"Good boys," drifted through the room, only audible to the dogs with their enhanced ninken hearing. Pakkun's, Bull's, and Urushi's tails all thumped quietly against the floor where they were sprawled out. The tell-tail thumping could be heard on the other side of the now closed door as well when a whisper of "extra biscuits later" was also uttered.

The ninken knew he wasn't quite ready to have visitors barging in. Shikamaru had been informed early that morning by Pakkun that Sakura was resting, as was Kakashi, and the dogs had since kept everyone out of the room but themselves.

He wouldn't admit it, but with his ninken he didn't have to. They knew their master, and they themselves didn't want anyone to disturb the human pile that contained Kakashi and his mate. While Kakashi would deny that Sakura was his mate, or that he was even looking for one, the ninken had all come to an agreement that this was the case; the humans just were doing their weird human dance of pretending it wasn't the case. None of them understood what it was about, but they knew Kakashi would get there when he was ready. He was always late; why should this be any different?

But they all knew. And they had all agreed to help get Kakashi to arrive at the same conclusion sooner than his habit may allow by itself.

It was an hour later that the mass of pink hair started to shift as her sleep began to wane.

Kakashi chose to ignore the tickle of several strands of pink brushing his neck and cheek. Her usual scent was pleasant, she was warm, and she had a death grip around his torso that he couldn't loosen if he wanted to. Besides, it would be entertaining to see how she reacted to the realization that she was using him as a human body pillow.

So he pretended to still be sleeping, carefully controlling for his breathing and keeping his muscles relaxed in the perfect imitation of sleep. He had perfected the act as the sensei of Team 7, despite the fact that unless going through chakra exhaustion, Kakashi had really never slept on a mission. He let the trio think he was asleep during their respective guard duties, but had never actually let them be the sole watch until after the war when they were more than capable.

He would wait and see what she did when she woke.

There was something she was supposed to do.

She knew there was.

But she just couldn't find it in her to care right now. The hospital ran her ragged. This was a rare opportunity to bask in the warmth of her pillows. It was too bad she had worked herself to exhaustion again and had collapsed as soon as she came home from the hospital. It wasn't an unusual feeling though, knowing she was still in her training gear.

Wait.

Training gear? She should be wearing her medic uniform.

No. Wait.

She tensed as the memories of the last months ran through her mind. She had entered ANBU. And she was in Kumo. With Kakashi. And Sasuke had been there.

Sharingan.

Her eyes snapped open as she realized where exactly she was. And that her pillows didn't normally radiate heat.

She felt it as her face burned. She knew the color of her face would rival that of the old dress she wore as a genin. If it had been possible, she would have turned purple when she realized that her head was lying just below Kakashi's sternum, and her arms were draped over him, her right hand gripping the front of his shirt, her left alarmingly holding onto the hem of his shirt and waistband of his pants in the same fist.

Easy. Slowly. Don't wake him up...her mind was doing it's damndest to not fly out the window with her realizations. She slowly and smoothly relaxed her grip on Kakashi's clothing, leaving her hands where they were. If she removed herself too quickly he would notice.

Then again, if she didn't remove herself quickly enough he would notice. She could feel the paralysis of her predicament coming over her. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't move. She was shaking.

No. That wasn't her.

Kakashi couldn't keep it in any longer. Giving up all pretenses of being asleep, he let the laughter rock his body, and in turn, Sakura's frozen form. He could feel her blush heating his abdomen and the rigidity of her muscles as she poorly hid the internal combustion of her neural synapses.

Her face did not disappoint as she erupted from her position against him and turned with a look of outrage on her face. She was nearly purple and her face transitioned from murderous anger to mortification and back again. The sight of her warring emotions only made him laugh harder and he clutched at his stomach as the muscles clenched to the point of pain.

His laughter died down to rolling chuckles as he scooted back and sat up on the bed in front of her. Until he glanced at her face again which was perfectly matching her hair at that moment.

When his laughter came again it broke Sakura of her stupor. She had never seen him laugh like this. A chuckle? Sure. A slightly creepy, book-covered giggle? Unfortunately. Way too many times. This, however, was a full-blown masculine laugh that made her insides squirm a little.

Which unfortunately made her receding flush flare back up with a brilliance that ignited Kakashi's laughter once again.

Not knowing what to do, she reached for an old habit.

"Baka-shi!" She half-squealed, half-growled at him, swinging her open palm to cuff him on the side of his head.

She was not surprised when his head dipped and her hand cruised straight through where his head had been, and he caught her hand on the other side before sitting back up to look at her, eyes twinkling and chuckles still emanating from his throat.

She was surprised, however, when his grip shifted against her hand, and he brought her knuckles to press gently to his masked lips. His eyes stayed trained on her own during the unprecedented event, not wavering as he lowered her hand to the bed between them, still holding it gently.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, dumbfounded and holding his gaze, but eventually she realized she hadn't blinked or taken a breath for far too long. When she finally surfaced for air, it was to the feeling of heat not only spreading across her face, but engulfing her from the core and spreading throughout her body.

He wasn't sure exactly what made him do that, but he wasn't going to regret it either. It was a very Sakura-like response to cuff him for having his fun, and he found himself further entertained at her wide-eyed gaze. She seemed frozen in time, just staring at him with her vibrant veridian eyes.

Deciding not to push her too far, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze and patented eye-crinkle, before getting up from his spot and heading to the en-suite bathroom. If he pushed her too far she might use chakra next time, whether she meant to or not.

Deciding to give her a moment, Kakashi pulled his long sleeve shirt over his head and proceeded to turn on the shower before divesting himself of the rest of his clothes. Stepping under the hot spray, he chuckled quietly to himself, thinking about what reactions she might give him next time.

 _A/N: Yes yes, I'm still alive. I have no excuse this time. I just wasn't feeling it. But here we are with a short chapter, but better than nothing, right? I really like this one, and I hope you do to. I was feeling a little inspired and had a little bit to punch this out. So I figure if I don't post it now, it will probably be another 6 months or something!_

 _R &R if you would be so kind as to try to inspire me to write some more! Your comments mean a lot to me!_


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